The most essential ingredient for growing up in God is His Word. It’s as necessary for your spiritual wellbeing as food is for your body.
Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Peter compared the Word to milk:
“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby….” —1 Peter 2:2
There are three facts about natural food that also apply to spiritual food:
- It must be eaten.
- It must be consumed regularly in sufficient amounts.
- It provides nourishment, leading to health and strength.
God’s Word will do for you spiritually what natural food does for you physically.
By comparing the Word of God to food, we see how important it is for us today. If you see the Bible as just as another book, you won’t understand its relevance for today. It’s much more than a mere history book. It is food. It is fuel. It is life (John 6:63).
God’s Word contains power and life! When you read, hear and meditate on it, that power gets in you and builds you up, helping you grow (Acts 20:32) and take possession of all that’s yours in Christ.
There is not much emphasis on God’s Word today. It’s become popular to appeal to the world by making the Christian message more “relevant” to today’s culture. If that is achieved by taking God’s Word out of the process, then I don’t want relevance!
If we’re not careful, we’ll starve the Church, trying to appeal to the world.
The Bible is not a daily horoscope. It’s not a novel or just an ordinary book. It wasn’t written to stimulate the mind. It was written to feed the spirit.
God’s Word will do for you what nothing else can, and nothing can take its place.
The ministry of the teacher may not be as exciting or powerful as an evangelistic gift or a prophetic gift, but the gift of the teacher is what we need to grow and mature.
Lack of a proper diet of God’s Word and lack of right teaching are the primary reasons people don’t grow.
Some of the teaching from pulpits today, albeit well intentioned, is not conducive to spiritual growth. Preaching sin instead of righteousness only causes guilt and condemnation. Preaching to Christians as if they’re sinners won’t help people grow either.
Although there are great rewards waiting for us in heaven, we need teaching from God’s Word that causes us to rise up and use our authority to possess what belongs to us—right here and now!
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