“I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready for it.” 1 Corinthians 3:2 (NIV)
Our niece is fighting attempts to shift her diet from formula in a bottle to baby food. She is failing to embrace the change. She wants to stay in her comfort zone. In much the same way, the work of God suffers tremendously from our spiritual immaturity. God needs mighty spiritual warriors; not a bunch of spiritual cowards. Jehovah needs elite Special Forces spiritual warriors. We are to battle Satan at every turn, waging an unending war against him and his unseen forces of darkness. Instead, we cower in the corner while Lucifer mocks us.
Spiritual warriors must train constantly to be effective. You can not take a soldier who has not been to the weapons range in two years and put him into the middle of a firefight. He is useless without that training. Some Christians among us appear to have formed a new denomination, "Christian Minimalists". They steadfastly believe in doing the absolute minimum they can for the cause of Our Redeemer. Unfortunately, the body of Christ is full of them. The Holy Scriptures predict their fate. It tells us they will be saved, but as a man escaping through a fire.
Our spiritual Coach, God, keeps telling us he wants us in the starting line up. Our Father tells us we are ready. He promises to be right there on the sidelines giving instructions and tips. We are told if we get confused, we can call a time out and come directly to Him to talk. But we say no, Coach, send in someone else. I am just happy to be on the team. This bench is real comfortable. I feel safe here. It is what I am used to.
When we limit Our Messiah to Sundays and Wednesdays, we are sitting on the spiritual bench. We are stubbornly refusing to grow spiritually. We tell Jehovah to send someone else in when we fail to study our Bibles every day. We wallow in our spiritual immaturity when we fail to spend quiet time with the Lord. We drink babies milk when we forget that prayer, like any other conversation, is a two way street. It requires both speaking AND listening. How can the Master use us for mighty things when we will not even do the small things He asks of us? How can we shake the foundations of Hell and make demons flee when our Bibles gather dust and we forget to take to our knees daily to pour out our hearts to Our Heavenly Father?
It is long past time for us to stop being spiritual infants. It is long past time for us to live up to our spiritual potential. Want to see revival in your church? Get off the spiritual milk! Want to see the Holy Spirit move in your life? Move on to the solid spiritual food of a mature believer!
- Timothy E. Davis submitted this article to BulletinGold, along with the simple request that he be contacted should you choose to utilize it in your local bulletin. He may be contacted at ted400us@yahoo.com Copyright 2007 Timothy E. Davis.
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