How Much Solid Food Do You Eat?

Hebrews 5:12-14  -   You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you all over again the very first principles in God’s Word. You are like babies who can drink only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk it shows he isn’t very far along in the Christian life, and doesn’t know much about the difference between right and wrong. He is still a baby Christian!  You will never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God’s Word until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right.

Whoever this writer was…they were frustrated with having to always remind these Christians that they needed to stop being babies and grow up. They had been Christians a long time…yet they still clung to the basics of Jewish law…not wanting to let go of the old testament rituals and learn for themselves the limitless power of trusting Christ completely.

Every time I read this passage I am convicted of my own lack of growth.  I could easily try to justify that I am trying harder these last couple of years…but I know in my heart that the 20 or so years I wasted being a baby will never be totally recovered.  I still cling too many times to my own understanding of things…and fail to really digest what God meant by Proverbs 3:5…  Trust the Lord thy God with all your heart, lean not unto thy own understanding.

I thought of Ezekiel…and the vision he shared in Ezekiel 47. He had been led to the river and asked to wade deeper and deeper into the water…eventually coming to a part where he would have to swim if he ventured into that depth.  God wanted him to realize that the mature Christian has to wade as deep as possible into God’s will… sometimes letting the situation become too much for our human understanding.  It is at this point that we let Christ support us as we traverse through the situation only God can lead us through safely to the other side.

Growing up in Christ requires the skill of discernment. Discernment is how we determine right from wrong in our lives. God doesn’t always make it easy….it is only by praying that he allow us to discern the truth that we will stay inside his will. This writer takes it one more step and says we have to practice it as well.

Father….thank you for the reminder that I need to continually grow in your love and truth.  Forgive me for the times that I let life stop me from wading deeper into who you have planned for me to be….and stunt the growth that you want for my soul.  Give me the power to discern right from wrong…even in the situations that are hard to understand.  Then give me the courage to take the steps toward practicing what you tell me to do.  Amen.