Growing like a Baby

 Isn't it amazing to see how fast newborn babies grow? Most of them gain about a half a pound a week, so that very soon they are over ten pounds and becoming stronger every day. All of this growth comes as a result of them drinking milk or formula, but of course, they do this every 2 or 3 hours around the clock for the first several months. It wears out the parents, but it is what the babies need to grow in a healthy way.

Peter uses this analogy to teach us about growing as new Christians. (I Peter 2:2) What we must do is to long for the pure milk of the Word of God as newborn babies long for their milk. When we crave the Word and feed on it often, we will grow in respect to our salvation, so we become strong Christians, as we should. Without it, we are not able to have the life the Lord designed for us. 

Just like milk for babies, the Word of God has everything in it that a baby Christian needs to grow in the Lord. When we get saved we are "born again." We start a new life. We are a new creature in Christ, not just changed. We have to feed our mind and our heart with all of the information we need to live the Christian life, and we have to begin to put it into practice.

New Christians who do not long for the Word and feed on it in this way don't know what to do or how to do it. They keep doing what they did before they were saved, and those things stunt their growth instead of helping them. That is why God puts a hunger in us when we get saved, but we have to fulfill that hunger for the Lord and His Word in the right way. Then, later we can move on to eating the solid food of the Word, which is learning and doing the more difficult things in the Christian life.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Peter 4-5