Grow Up!

I Peter 2:2 "Like newborn babes, crave spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation."

When my children were born, they needed to be fed on a regular schedule, about every 3-4 hours they would drink a bottle of formula or be breast fed.  This was necessary for them to grow and develop.  As they got older, they began needing more than milk, so cereal and baby food were added to their diet.  Eventually, they had plenty of teeth and were able to begin eating solid foods.  Each stage of their growth was dependent upon the type of nutrition they received in order to develop.  If my children had never been given anything more than a bottle of milk every 3-4 hours as they grew older, they would never have developed normally.  They would have been weak, abnormally small, and probably would not have lived very long.

Here in I Peter, the scripture is speaking of spiritual babes and spiritual growth, likening it to physical babies and physical growth.  As newborn Christians, we are like babes, needing to be fed milk, easy to digest food.  As we grow older in Christ, we should begin to also expand our diets until we grow into maturity.  However, we do not see a lot of maturity in the family of God.  So many times, what we see is Preschool actions from adult believers.  Notice I didn't say 'mature' believers.  Spiritual maturity is not evident by the amount of knowledge a Christian has obtained, nor by the number of years they have attended church or even by the amount of money they give.  Spiritual maturity is evident by the way Christians get along with one another, by the way they love the world and by the way they are devoted to obeying the Father.

As this scripture encourages us, crave spiritual milk!  If you realize you are lacking in spiritual maturity, go back to the basics.  Crave spiritual milk, go back to your first love.  We can't skip a firm foundation in Christ.  His love, His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, His sacrifice, none of these we've earned nor deserved, but because of the before mentioned, we are saved!!  Let us walk humbly in His way in complete surrender to His will so that we will mature in Christ and be able to grow up as strong believers.