Mother’s Milk

BY JAKE MAGEE

www.oasisnorthvalley.org
www.jakemagee.blogspot.com


Infants eat voraciously. The slightest hunger pangs are broadcast with ear-piercing tongues of discontent. We know that as soon as they’re born they intuitively seek out mother’s milk. Though their eyesight is unclear and motor functions underdeveloped, they just seem to know where and how to find mother’s milk. They’ll eat until they burp up or until they’re exhausted. They’re not merely eating to live, they live to eat.

Peter says to those born from above,

“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (1 Peter 2:1-3)
The apostle says that those who have tasted of the Lord will have an infant-like appetite for the word of God. Do you?

Do you eat God’s word to live? Or do you live to eat God’s word? One is a duty – driven out of law and obligation. The other compelled by the experience of pleasure and delight.

Is the word of God a duty or a delight?

Do you have an insatiable appetite for God’s word? Do you eat it until you’re exhausted and burp up? Or, are you satisfied with a sampler: a quick devotion here or an out of context verse there?

Do you treasure God’s word or handle it trivially?

If your approach to Scripture is trivial and duty driven, perhaps your appetite has been suppressed. Perhaps you need to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. I know of no greater things to suppress one’s appetite for God’s word than to consume and digest maligning and evil words. That’s easily done watching TV, surfing the web, or reading magazines. How many hours do we spend ingesting and digesting these sorts of things? How little time do we ingest and digest the word of God?

In the same way, I know of no greater thing which suppresses an infant’s appetite than gas. It takes the space that mom’s milk would take up. Here’s a novel ideal: Turn off the TV for once. Put down the magazine. Close the lap-top. It’s gaseous. It will fill you up with nothing. And it usually stinks.

Infants are marked with one focus – mother’s milk. Everything else is irrelevant. Let’s begin to long for God’s word like new born babes.