One of the most popular topics today is in one word, "diet". With our sedimentary life style weight loss has become a huge industry. A great deal of money and energy is spent on trying to keep fit these days.
Diet is much more than weight loss. It is the whole of what we ingest. What is true in the physical area is true in the spiritual realm. We need a balanced diet.
When I grew up in the church we emphasized a lot of what we should avoid spiritually. That is important too. We did not put nearly enough emphasis on what we should take in for a balanced spiritual diet.
God's Word instructs us as to what this is. There are specific physical foods mentioned a number of times in the scriptures which correlate to spiritual nourishment.
1. Milk I Peter 2.2-3
*No beverage contains so many nutrients.
*Young children need it for bone mass and skeletal development.
*It is easy to digest. It doesn't tax the digestive system.
Spiritually milk is the basics of the faith.
We need to continue to take it in. Human beings are the only animals/mammals which continue to take in milk after full development.
We are to be childlike in our faith. The Word of God has milk. We are to crave it like new born babes. Long for the time in God's Word each day. Pursue it with love and hide it in your heart.
Now we know that children do not stay on an all milk diet. They begin to desire solid food. Milk no longer satisfies alone. They still need milk but they also need:
2. Meat I Corinthians 3.1-2
As teeth begin to develop, children want something they can sink their teeth into, something more than just milk.
As we mature as believers we long for the vast wealth of God's Word to make us strong.
Both the Corinthians and the Hebrews had arrested spiritual development. The Corinthians were bickering with jealousy in their hearts over which minister of the gospel was the best and over spiritual gifts. Sins within can cut off the desire for solid food. There are so many spiritual analogies here but we cannot get into all of them. Sins like jealousy and envy and bitterness affect us physically, particularly in our bone health and our digestive system. Godliness with contentment is great gain. I Timothy 6.6
We need meat (Solid food) to develop - Peter tells us to first rid ourselves of things that prevent spiritual development. (I Peter 2.1) Think about envy. If I am focused on what someone else has I can't give my full attention to becoming like Christ. I can't digest meat/solid food. There is an immaturity to all these inner sins... we see it with children (I have more sprinkles on my ice cream than you!) but when we grow up it is so unbecoming!
We need milk, we need meat and we also need
3. Manna John 6.30-40
Daily provision for food for the body. Daily provision for spiritual food for each day: "Give us this day our daily bread."
This has to do with a Person to person relationship- personal insight. Christ= the Anointed One, The Truth, The Way, The Life. I had an experience of this nature this week- The Gardens of Jesus last hours: Gethsemane, The Garden Tomb, Paradise: The Struggle, Suffering, Pleasure for Eternity.
Milk, Meat Manna- Let's Eat!
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