So then, stop doing anything to hurt others. Don’t lie anymore, and stop trying to fool people. Don’t be jealous or say bad things about others. ² Like newborn babies hungry for milk, you should want the pure teaching that feeds your spirit. With it you can grow up and be saved. ³ You have already tasted the goodness of the Lord.

1 Peter 2 The Message (MSG)

 ^1-3So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.

Put out of your life hate and lying. Do not pretend to be someone you are not. Do not always want something someone else has. Do not say bad things about other people. ² As new babies want milk, you should want to drink the pure milk which is God’s Word so you will grow up and be saved from the punishment of sin. ³ If you have tasted of the Lord, you know how good He is.

Have you ever watched an infant at the breast drinking milk?  When they are hungry they nurse with such intensity. It’s amazing how even a newborn, just hours old, knows how to nurse.   No one taught them, God just created them with a desire to nurse.  I think someplace deep within us we are starving for nourishment in the way Peter describes here just like a newborn hungers for milk.  Unfortunately, the world offers up some tantalizing alternatives to the nourishment we really need.  

The word of God, the Bible, is God’s love letter written to us.  We just need to remember to read it.  But not just read it, engage in it like a conversation with God.  So much is happening when my four month old is nursing.  It’s much more than just feeding him something to eat.  We are communicating, bonding, and sharing moments intertwined in intimacy.  The milk is infused with life and living tissue that carries not only nutrients but antibodies and about a hundred other things that can not be replicated by anything man made.  So it is with God’s word.  It is living, life giving, and created to not only nourish us but protect us.  It can be imitated, but never duplicated.  Nothing replaces time spent in His embrace, drinking in His words of goodness for the nourishment and growth of one’s soul. 

Instead we wander around starving…  trying to make it without the one thing that can truly sustain us.

“So clean house!” as one version says, and “like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness”.  Imagine your favorite drink or dessert and indulge in your mind – that’s how we want to hunger and thirst for God’s word.  

If you haven’t developed that kind of hunger or thirst yet, “pray to”.  Ask God to give you a hunger and thirst like you’ve never had before.  And spend some time in communion with Him and His words to you. You can sign up on biblegateway.com for daily scripture to be sent to your e-mail or you can choose from a variety of devotionals (free).  I also recommend starting in the book of John if you don’t know where else to start.  Pray for mentors and seek fellowship at a church that not only preaches God’s word but exhibits it from the moment you walk in the door. 

I pray you join me and drink deep of God’s pure kindness.

In His Grip,

Monica

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