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When did you learn to feed yourself? Or if you can’t remember that far back, at what age did you teach your children to feed themselves? None of us mind feeding babies and toddlers, but at a certain age we want them to learn to feed themselves. Having to feed a five-year-old or a ten-year-old would be sad, not normal.
And have you noticed that your kids need to be fed every day? I mean, feeding them only once a week, or even twice a week, just isn’t enough, is it? They insist on eating every day!
Well, the next question I want to ask is: Are you feeding yourself spiritually? And are you feeding yourself every day? If you and I want to grow to maturity in Christ, then we need spiritual food and we need it daily. Going to church once a week, or even adding a Bible study once a week, is not enough spiritual food for us to be healthy, growing Christians.
This week I want to talk about what it means to feed yourself spiritually so that you are a normal, growing Christian. It seems there are many Christians who have never learned to feed themselves, or have not been willing to impose the needed discipline that’s required to grow.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:11-15).
Our churches are full of infant Christians, people who’ve been born from above for many years but have never grown up in Christ. And that’s because they don’t feed themselves. It’s the cause of many of the “issues” we deal with as Christians, because baby Christians require lots of care and nurturing and they don’t do their share of the work. They’re still babies!