I Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.
Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
Jeremiah 15:16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We have had so many bottle baby critters through the years. We have bottle fed wild baby deer, skunks, possums, raccoons, squirrels, and flying squirrels. We have also bottle fed calves, goats, sheep, coatimundi, lemur, and a kangaroo. When we bottle feed the critters they become very social animals, and they love interacting with humans. This is one commonality between all the critter species!
When we first get the hungry babies, we know we have to feed them. They have to continue getting nourishing milk so that they can survive, stay healthy, and gain strength. However, they are just babies, and they don’t realize that this kinky headed woman with a plastic nipple is trying to feed and nourish them. I’ll admit, the first few days are usually a struggle. After they finally learn to latch on to the bottle, it seems that they can’t get enough milk. They start eating well, and their appetites are voracious.
As Christians, we need to crave the word of God like these babies crave milk. We need to eat the word of God like the prophet Jeremiah. We need the word for survival. The word of God provides healing, strength, wisdom, and life. Just as physical food nourishes our physical bodies, the word of God nourishes our spiritual body. We need it to survive and grow.
Now, sometimes we think that we don’t have time for studying God’s word. We go to church on Sunday so that’s probably giving us enough spiritual nutrition to keep us going, right? Wrong! We make time to eat 3 hot meals a day for our physical health, but we seem to think we can get by on 1 or 2 snacks a week for our spiritual health.
God wants us to be in His word daily, but He doesn’t expect you to read it all day and all night every day. However, He does expect you to make time for Him daily though. We make time to eat, right? No matter how busy we get, when our stomachs start growling, we put some food in our bellies. Our spiritual body and mind crave a continual feeding of the word, and we should study the word every day to satisfy that need as well.
God knows we’re busy. He knows everything that’s going on in our lives, but He wants us to know Him better, to have a closer walk with Him, to feel His presence all day every day. One way to do this is by setting aside a special time each day to read the Bible. We may not understand all the words. We don’t need to study a new language. We don’t have to be a Bible scholar. We only need to read, soak in the words, reflect on them, and listen to what God has to say.
It may be hard to get into the habit at first. Getting those bottle babies to take the bottle the first couple of days is always a challenge, but just like they learn to latch on and crave the bottle, once we get into the habit of studying the Bible, we will develop voracious appetites for God’s Word. Start out slow and go. Go feed on the Word!!
(The image attached is a picture of Bucky, an axis deer. He isn’t a bottle baby anymore, but anytime there is a bottle baby in the barn Bucky gets a sip of the bottle.)
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 