Hunger for God, and You'll Grow Spiritually

When babies are born they have to eat. Whether they're breast-fed or bottle-fed, they must have milk to live. They can't get food on their own; they have to get it from their parents. As they grow and continue to mature they start eating soft food out of a jar. As they develop teeth they can have little bits of chunks in that food. As they get a full set of teeth, they can have food that is more solid. We have all seen the progression.

What happens when a youngster is in a high chair trying to learn how to eat? He thinks he can feed himself before his parents think he can. He demands to feed himself and ends up getting food all over his face. He throws it on the floor and across the kitchen. Of course, the goal is that at some point he learns how to get that food into his mouth and actually chew it and get it down into his stomach. There are all kinds of jokes and family stories of how mishaps have happened at the table, something spilled in the middle of an important dinner or food was thrown, hitting somebody in the face. People laugh and joke about how youngsters throw their food onto the floor or smear it all over their face, but after a time it is not funny anymore.

There is a certain age between 2 and 3 years old when the child is expected to learn how to feed himself and not make such a big mess. If he is 9 or 10 years old and still throwing food on the floor, smearing food all over his face, and throwing food at others, it is no longer funny. It's a nuisance, and it's rebellion. What if he were 15 or 16 years old and still smooshing food all over his face and still had not learned how to get it down? Is he still saying, "Mommy, Daddy, come feed me." "Mommy, Daddy, come put it on a fork for me and put it in my mouth." Or, "I do not like it like this." Or, "I want it hot." Or, "I want it cold." Well, then it shows that he has not grown up. He has not matured.

Many Christians are like these children who have not learned to feed themselves yet. They sit in church their whole life demanding that their pastor or youth pastor feed them. They can't get any food for themselves. When they do get food from a great sermon preached to them, they listen to part of it and throw part of it on the floor. Or they smash it on their face and talk about it for a week, but they really do not digest it. They do not really put it into their life.

As young Christians we need to be fed. As baby Christians we need milk, but there comes a time when we need to learn how to eat meatier, solid foods. Then there comes a time after eating solid food that we need to learn how to feed ourselves and not be sucking on the bottle at church every week. We need to dive into the Word of God for ourselves to get meat.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:2: "Crave spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation." Do you really crave it? Now you know little babies crave milk. They long for it, and they cry when they don't get it. They just have to have it. Are you that hungry for God? Do you crave it? Do you want it? Do you say, "Oh, God, feed me."? Do you go to church saying, "Oh, Lord, feed me."? Do you tell your youth pastor, your pastor, your parents, "Please teach me more. I want to grow, I want to grow."? The first issue here is, do you really crave the food of the Word of God? Do you crave spiritual milk, spiritual nutrition? If you don't, that's the issue that needs to be dealt with. If you don't want to eat, if you don't feel like you are hungry, you need to repent and get hungry. ... If you don't have a real craving for spiritual milk, for spiritual nutrition, then ask God to break your heart this week. Ask God to fill you with a supernatural craving, a ravenous desire for food and nutrition, for the Word of God.

Take three minutes right now and meditate on 1 Peter 2:2. Take it with you today and all week long. Then, start chewing on it. Say, "Lord, I want to crave spiritual milk. Lord, I want to grow. I have to have spiritual nutrition." Chew on it until a spiritual hunger begins to explode inside of you.

Excerpted by permission from Mature Christians Are Boring People ... and Other Myths About Maturity in Christ, copyright 1997 by Ron Luce. Published by Albury Publishing, Tulsa, Okla., www.alburypublishing.com, 1-800-811-3921.

Ron Luce is the president of Teen Mania Ministries, an organization that sends youth around the world on short-term missions trips and hosts youth conventions around the country.

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