Thursday, December 17, 2015

Desire The Word

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"
1 Peter 2:1, 2 (NKJV)

There is one fact that everyone who has a baby, or anyone who has seen a baby knows, babies get hungry, often.  Once a baby is born they don't do too much other than eat.  If a baby does not get their food when they want it, then they will cry and let you know, there is no mystery about it.  When it is hungry, a baby wants to eat; babies will even wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat.  It can be a sunny day, rainy day, hot, or cold but it does not matter because that baby still wants to eat.  It seems that just about all the baby ever wants to do is to eat.

Peter makes an interesting comparison between our desiring the Word of God and a baby desiring milk.  Peter talks about our putting aside some negative, ungodly things and instead choosing the Word in the same way that a baby chooses milk over everything else.  Just like a newborn baby wants to eat and will not be satisfied until they do eat we need to have a desire, a craving, for the Word.  God's Word will help us to grow, but if we neglect the Word we will hinder our spiritual development.  Still, for some Christians having a strong desire for the Word is something foreign to them.

Some believers have filled themselves with other things that have spoiled their hunger, so to speak, for God's Word.  Many people have neglected the Word for so long or have heard it mixed with non-biblical teachings to the point that God's Word is an afterthought to them.  But if we spend time reading the Word and getting to know God through it our perspective would change.  By spending time with the Word we will find ourselves being drawn more and more to it, just as a baby desires milk we too will desire the Word.  What are you craving today, is it God's Word or something else?

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