Growing in Your Faith
Everybody has “their way” of doing things, especially when it comes to cooking. Regarding bacon, I have an interesting and not-so-manly way of preparing it. Rather than frying it up in a generations-old cast iron skillet, or baking it on a special wired drip-pan, I microwave it. I use a Nordic Ware bacon tray and it comes out golden and crispy every time. “To each his own,” right?
The other morning, I finished the biscuits, the eggs, and the bacon, laying them all out on the table with jellies, honey, and butter. As we divided up the food, every plate had bacon on it except my son’s. The girls love it, but my son is just not there yet. He stuck with his milk and bites of honey biscuit. No meat for him. But, he’ll get there. I mean, let’s be honest: it’s bacon.
My microwaved bacon, crispy and perfectly cooked.
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 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.” —Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV
The writer of Hebrews knew that his audience was struggling to understand the matters at hand. They were to be maturing, growing in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, but instead they were regressing; becoming lazy in their pursuit, and this was stunting their growth. Warnings would come after this passage, warnings against not falling away from faith. Laziness will do this to a Christian and error leads to dangerous places.
There are plenty of times when we are not ready for something spiritually, and we still need to grow in our understanding of God’s word and our relationship with Christ. But if we are those who should know better, who “ought to be teachers” but “need someone to teach” us the basics again, then its time to return to milk and leave the bacon on the table for those who can eat it.
When it comes to growing in your faith, it’s important to note that even the most spiritual among us, the highest ranking people we know, need to return to the basics of spiritual milk sometimes. A certain position within the church or even a highly appointed pastoral leader can get it wrong. You’ll know who “lives on milk” and “is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.”
But for you, learn the basics and spend time on the important milk of faith, so that you can grow in grace and consume solid spiritual food that makes you mature. If you will, then “constant use” will train you “to distinguish good from evil,” and that is crucial in the times we live in.
I’ll leave you with one more Scripture to ponder:
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.” —Hebrews 12:14-17 NIV
May God grant us a spirit of discernment so that we may live lives that are holy and pleasing to God.
—Pastor Whit
Read more inspirational messages about growing in your faith by checking out our past sermons.