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T-Bone or Bottle? I am a carnivore by nature. I absolutely love me a good steak, and I eat one every chance I get! Most all of my life I have really liked milk as well. Maybe it’s because my grandpa drank so much of it that my attempts to be just like him helped me develop a taste for milk, I’m not sure. Nevertheless, I have single handedly kept some dairy and beef operations afloat, I’m quite positive.
There was a time when I couldn’t choose between one or the other – the lack of teeth in my mouth and ability to properly chew made the choice for me. You see, at one point in all our lives we had no choice but to drink from a bottle. That’s just the way it works when you’re an infant, right?
However, just imagine an infant growing and never being pulled away from the bottle. Imagine that child celebrating his or her 12th birthday, and still not ever leaving the warm bottle of milk for some solid food – especially meat of some sort. No doubt that diet would have caused some development issues in the life of that child, not just physically or mentally but also socially.
Yet every Sunday we gather with fellow believers, some of whom have been saved for years on end and have never left the bottle for some meat in their spiritual life.
Let’s be honest – milk from a bottle is much easier, right? Not only is preparation simpler, but consumption is too! You don’t have to chew milk, do you? You don’t have to cut up milk, right? A bottle of milk doesn’t require you to fire up the grill or pre-heat the oven. It’s just easier – but it’s so much less rewarding!
And so we continue on, finding our satisfaction in the milk of the Word, as Paul said, and never pressing into the MEAT of the Word.
We hold to our Sunday school memory verses – like John 3:16 or Philippians 4:13 – and we think that’s it. Make no mistake, those verses are incredible, as is all of God’s Word! But we have to press in further than John 3:16 to discover so many of God’s other wonderful attributes! We have to push on past Philippians 4:13 to discover how God will provide for us to do all things! Yet it takes a bit more effort and work on our part.
And if we never do – and we remain content in our spiritual infancy – all areas of our lives will be touched and affected by that. As a matter of fact, based on what the Bible says, much of our personal conflict, family conflict, or even church conflict would be remedied if we were in the meat instead of just the milk all the time. Truth is – we need depth, and that only grows when we grow away from just milk, and press in to some meat of the Word.
And this journey can only begin for you and me when we personally make the decision to allow it to, and then follow up with the commitment to make it. Dive into the meat of God’s Word today!
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