The last bits of mascara melted off my eyelashes as I took out the last tray of Christmas cookies. I really don’t like making cookies; they are too laborious for me. Making Christmas cookies once a year is enough. My favorite “cookie” is a nice, juicy steak, a fluffy mountain of glistening mashed potatoes covered in about a gallon of good old-fashioned lumpy beef gravy.

Don’t get me wrong! I really like cookies—eating them that is. Cookies are delicious and some are even beautifully decorated. It is rare that I pass up a plate of cookies without popping one of them into my mouth. I mean, come on now; how can flour, butter, and sugar mixed together really taste bad? But my problem with eating cookies is that they never really fill me up. And believe me, I have tried! In some of my “finer” moments, I have tried eating cookies to the point of being satisfied, but I always come away sick to my stomach, unfulfilled and nauseous.

But when I sit down to a juicy, perfectly grilled steak with a side order of any type of potato you can imagine, I know my hunger will be satisfied. My belly is happy it has something to digest. I am full and satisfied.

This is a good reflection of my own walk with God. As a child, I accepted what was told and taught to me by my Sunday School Teachers, Pastor, and my own parents. I drank in the sweetness of knowing that Jesus loved me because the Bible told me so. In my early adolescence I read the bible from cover to cover and got a taste of a deeper appreciation of the Word, but I never really studied the Bible any depth.

Then my teenage years hit. I tried to sustain my faith on my own knowledge of God that wasn’t very strong because I hadn’t really eaten any of the “meat” of His Word. I survived those years, but looking back I made a lot of bad choices with a lot of bad results that may have been avoided if I was only stronger in my walk with God.

As my faith grows, I find myself hungering to know more about God. I want to study His Word, to grasp His message, and to try to understand Him. I want to sit at His table and devour the Word that He has left me. There really is nothing I enjoy better than to work on trying to understand a passage of Scripture, and then to finally “get” it! These “meals” plant the seeds that root themselves down deep in my soul and my “branches” of faith begin to bloom and grow.

And then, at those times when life spins out of control, when tragedy hits and eating a full meal is impossible and all I can think of is, “Jesus loves me, this I know,” knowing this-that Jesus loves me-IS enough. I have eaten at His table, I have been filled with His Holy Spirit, and I am satisfied.

 

Further points to ponder:

1Pet 2:1-3 (NIV) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

What does the statement, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,” mean to you?

Do you think that malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander diminish as we grow in our salvation? Why do you think this is so?

 Heb 5:11-14 (NIV) We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. 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.

Where are you in your Spiritual life?

What areas in your bible study life are strong and what areas are weak?

What plans can you begin to implement to make your bible study life stronger?

1 Cor 3:1-2 (NIV) Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly, for since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

This verse implies that our actions and possible reactions to others should change as we mature in our faith in Christ.

Do you feel that you have changed since knowing Jesus? How?

What areas do you think need more change? Why?

Linda Guteres