Devotionals

Eat Solid Food

by Stephen Wong
03/23/21
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“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”      Hebrews 4:13-14 NIV

Over the years, I have enjoyed being invited over to friends’ homes to share dinner with their families. I am thankful for the many amazing and delicious meals that my friends have served me. However, one meal that I have never been served by a friend is a refreshing bottle of formula milk. Similarly, I have never seen any of my friends serve their baby a mouth-watering medium-rare scotch fillet with a glass of wine. All of us would agree that both of these meal choices would be inappropriate based on the developmental state of the eater. While it is right to feed milk to newborn babies, it is necessary for us to quickly graduate to eating solid food. I would certainly prefer a nice steak over a bottle of milk for dinner on any day!

Similarly, the writer of Hebrews recognised that his original readers needed to graduate to solid food in their faith. Due to the fact that they were slow to hear and practise God’s truth in their lives, they were still like infant believers who needed to feed on spiritual milk. They should have been teaching God’s Word to others by now, but instead they needed reminding of even the elementary truths of their faith (Hebrews 4:11-12). 

Perhaps many of us in the church have fallen into the habit of being “slow to learn” in the faith. Maybe the church sermon and weekly Bible study have become the only times that we make the effort to listen to God’s truth. Even then, we may rarely allow these truths to travel from our minds into our hearts. Yet, it is clear that God’s Word is much more than just a guidebook that we can occasionally turn to for some helpful advice. Listening to it and applying its truths to our lives regularly is the key to growing in spiritual maturity. Just like the importance of food for the body, we need God’s Word to keep moving forward in our faith journey. 

If we have become distant from God’s Word, then there is only one remedy for fixing this: reading God’s Word. Perhaps today is the day when we need to make that recommitment to regular Bible reading. Of course, as we seek to do this, we can turn to God in prayer, who is always ready to help us understand his Word better and allow its truths to change our lives. We can also seek the support of other Christian brothers and sisters who can keep us accountable over our Bible reading habits. As we grow in maturity and become trained in reading and apply God’s Word, may God also use us to be a blessing to others through teaching them the truths we learn.

Dear God,

I thank you that your Word is good. May you teach us to feed deeply on the solid food of your truths each day, allowing your Word to transform our lives. Please grant us an ever stronger desire for your Word, as we become trained in living out its truths. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen