Grow UP! November 13, Readings: Ezekiel 33-34, Hebrews 5:11–6:20, Psalm 120, Proverbs 27:24–27

Links to Today's Readings

My granddaughter, Johannah, is the cutest thing. She has just entered her "terrible twos" - with both feet! She is testing her limits, demanding her way, pouting, and throwing tantrums. We used to call her Hurricane Johannah - she could leave a swath of destruction behind her wherever she goes. A while back, one of her favorite things was to unroll the toilet paper (thank goodness that "adorable" hobby has passed.) When she eats, ends us strewn about the room. She can be loving one minute and angry the next. Happy. Sad. It's like riding a roller coaster!

But it won't be so cute in 15 years if she behaves the same way. What is cute in a toddler is annoying in a child and intolerable in a teenager. Johannah is normal - that is how two-year-olds behave. But if she is still behaving the same way when she is 18, there won't be anything cute about it. She will begin to hear those fateful words that parents often say to their children - GROW UP!

That is what the author of Hebrews was saying to his readers in Hebrews 5:12.

Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 

What was the problem? They should have been mature, leading others in the ways of Christ, and training them to follow him, but they were not. They were still having to learn the basic lessons of life. They have remained on a diet of milk instead of going on to eating the solid food they need to grow. 

We sometimes wonder why the church is in the kind of mess that it is in today. The problem is what the author diagnosed here in this passage. American Christians live on a baby's diet, refusing to dig into the meat of the Word and staying with the pablum, or worse, living on a diet of junk food - but that's another devotional altogether. Too often we find believers who have been saved for 20 or 30 years still behaving like they are in their terrible twos.

There is a simple solution to this problem. We need to grow up, to mature in Christ, to grow in him. We need to deal with the sicknesses that prevent spiritual growth, by repenting of our sin and seeking God. We must get a consistent diet of high-nutrition solid spiritual food, by reading studying and obeying God's Word. As we turn from our growth-stunting sins and feast upon God's Word, we will grow and leave behind childish behavior. 

Father, build your character into me. May I grow strong in you through your Word.