Bite by Bite

Hebrews 5:11-14, "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (NIV).

I'm pretty sure I was this person at the beginning of March. I've been a Christian for 17 years, but have read Scripture & prayed more in the last month than I probably have in the previous 10ish years.  I have a decent foundation of what the Bible says, but I still needed to go back to the elementary truth of the God's Word.  I stopped believing that God Loves me, which is a lie.  I also did not have understanding of God's blessings being sometimes pleasurable & sometimes painful to receive.   Not everything in life is wonderful and I questioned God's Love when the bottom fell out, but He Loves us so much that He wants to carry us through the bad painful times and give us the peace that passes understanding.  The most important thing is that He is fighting for our eternity, which in the grand scheme of things far out weighs momentary earthy pleasure. Sometimes we need "discomfort" to get us to the point that we can do nothing else but call on God.

There have been times in my Christian walk when I've read Scripture and wondered if I got anything out of it at all. Consider this: what did you eat 2 days ago?  Did you get anything out of it?  It sustained you just like what I ate 2 days ago sustained me.  Even if what I eat isn't so delicious that I want to eat it every day for a year, & boy have I had meals like that,  it still was sustaining.  The same is true of Scripture; there are passages that are not ones that I'd necessarily memorize or that God used in my life at the moment, but that doesn't mean they didn't sustain me in my walk with Him. And like the physical meals I've enjoyed whether at home or at travel, that I go back to time and time again; I also do in the spiritual, there are passages of scripture that I refer to over and over again.

I want to be able to distinguish good from evil in an even deeper way, kind of like in 1 Corinthians 12:10.  I think it is for all of us to recognize the lies from the enemy and to reject them in the name of Jesus Christ, even when there is a more specific deeper place for those whom God gives a supernatural gift.

Choosing to eat healthy is not always easy, but does get easier with time even if the choice to go back is always there.   It takes one bite at a time to stay on a healthy diet both physically & spiritually.  Even in healthy eating I'll still have meals that I look forward to or hope to enjoy again & such is true spiritually.  I like what Howard Hendrix has to say about the mark of spiritual maturity in his book "Living by the Book,"The mark of spiritual maturity is not how much you understand, but how much you use.  In the spiritual realm, the opposite of ignorance is not knowledge but obedience."  God will grow me to the person He has created me to be, one bite at a time until I am eating spiritually healthy full course  meals and am trained to distinguish good from evil.

bite by bite carry me daily, Lord.