Christian Nutrition
I love meat. I’m what my Uncle Fred calls a “meat-eterian.” A big, thick, juicy steak at Longhorn’s… Oh, my goodness, it’s a weakness of mine. I was enjoying the Lord’s presence a couple
of Saturday mornings ago when this illustration came to me using… yes, you
guessed it. Steak.
In Hebrews, Chapter 5, it says,
“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.” (Heb 5:13&14)
If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you’ve probably heard before a
believer’s spiritual growth compared to the contrast between the milk that an
infant drinks and the meat that an adult eats.
As a believer, as you mature in your relationship with the Lord, your
spiritual appetite increases along with your
spiritual understanding and you take the milestone of graduating from
drinking milk- “baby food”- to eating meat- “grown-up food.”
I’m realizing that God has begun to
serve me solid food now as He’s calling me to cross new milestones not only in
my physical life but in my spiritual life as well. As He’s calling me to begin “growing up”
spiritually. The milk is being left
behind and can no longer satisfy my spiritual appetite.
But as a Christian begins to eat
that thick, juicy steak of the depth of God’s Word, he’s going to encounter
some things in his life that he never has before. With every step we take closer to knowing
God, the Enemy combats with an attack to try to counter our move and drive us
back to our weak position as helpless, naïve, and vulnerable “baby” Christians. There are a few tactics of his that struck me
particularly as it pertains to this illustration.
As I mentioned briefly in my prior
post Passion or Passivity, one of the ways the Enemy enjoys combatting
is by using those closest to you. As you
begin to eat a steak, every now and then you come across gristle. God sometimes uses the people closest to us in
our lives to speak through. Their godly
counsel is a blessing as they speak God’s Word into our situations and
circumstances. But sometimes, it turns
out that not everything people say is from God; it’s not always part of the steak. Sometimes there will be a little gristle
marbled in. Or as an even better
comparison perhaps, sometimes there’s a bone in the beef every now and
then. We all know that eating a bone is
a dangerous thing; it can puncture and do some serious damage. So can a word of counsel or advice that isn’t
from the Lord. It can plant doubts and
questioning and try our faith and trust in God if we accept it and allow it to
find root in our hearts and minds. Does
that mean that we should just avoid counsel altogether to be on the safe
side? Absolutely not! God uses people in our lives; godly counsel
and wise advice is important and needed as a Christian matures in his
relationship with the Lord. God-given
relationships with people are a gift and a blessing to support and encourage us
in our journey of faith. You don’t
completely avoid eating steak just because there might be a bone or some
gristle in it. But you do need to have
discernment to judge between what is steak and what is gristle.
How do you do that? By using your “steak knife” to separate the
steak from the gristle. “For the word of
God is living and active. Sharper than
any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints
and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s
sight. Everything is uncovered and laid
bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:12&13) If a steak knife will do the job, a sword
definitely will! The Enemy likes to use
good things for evil. Just as he can
quote Scripture for his own purpose, so he will sometimes use good counsel and
advice given with the best intentions for his own use. That’s why as a Christian begins to mature
spiritually and eat solid food, he absolutely must compare everything
spoken to him with the Word of God. The
written Word and the Words spoken to him by God, for God will not contradict
Himself and use someone to tell His child the opposite of what He has already told
His child Himself. Although sometimes it
would be easier to live as a hermit for the rest of our lives, we can’t avoid
these kinds of situations. There will
always be people close to us who will give their advice, their counsel, and
their opinions, sometimes even just a comment spoken lightly. And as humans, there will be times when the
Enemy uses their words for evil rather than for good as he tries to hamper our
spiritual growth. Sometimes, the advice
given might be good advice even but just because something is good does
not necessarily mean that it is from God.
The fruit that Eve ate was good, but it was not God Who told her to eat
it. That’s why spending time in prayer
and in the Lord’s written Word is so important to divide the good meat from the
gristle, the words from Him from the words that are not from Him. What is from God, accept it; what is not from
God, reject it. “But solid food is for
the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good
from evil.” (Heb 5:14)
Another tactic of the Enemy is to
try to season your steak. So many
philosophies and ideologies abound in our world and in our culture today. So many people will try to change the “taste”
of your faith and of the Gospel. But the
Bible says that “every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who
take refuge in him. Do not add to his
words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” (Pr 30:5&6) Be wary of any teachings or doctrines that
don’t align with the Word of God and run from those who try to change the
“taste” of His Word in any way.
The other strategy that particularly
struck me in this illustration is the Enemy’s use of steak sauces. When you add A1 sauce to your steak, what’re
you doing? You’re covering up some of
its natural flavor, right? The Enemy
loves to use distractions in his warfare.
Most of us are probably pretty good at recognizing and avoiding the bad
distractions in our lives- as Christians, we kind of get that; but not all
distractions are necessarily your blatant “bad” things. Sometimes the Enemy’s best instruments, in
fact, can be the good things in your life.
The things that we would never suspect to be a hindrance or stumbling
block to our faith. Relationships, jobs,
hobbies… It could be anything. And not every distraction we can rid our
lives of completely. Like work and
relationships sometimes. But if
something in your life is distracting from your relationship with the Lord and
hindering your obedience to His call, if it consumes more of your life and your
focus than God does, than it definitely needs adjusting at least. And for those “sauces” that can be cut out of
our lives completely, we may need to do just that. Anything that the Enemy can use to take away
from the “flavor” of God’s Word and work in your life, he will likely try to
use. A maturing Christian must not only
be aware for gristle and bones and seasonings, but he also has to be on guard
for steak sauces. Eating solid food
definitely requires some multi-tasking; it’s no wonder that believer’s must
begin their journey with God by growing on milk first.
Wrapping up this illustration
though, what if we use our steak to represent not only God’s word in our lives
but our spiritual lives themselves?
Before a steak can be served for a meal, it must first be grilled. As it’s on the grill, the steak is purified
of any bacteria, and fat and some juices from the steak drip down into the fire
beneath. So it is with our spiritual
lives. Sometimes God will call us to
walk through some hardships and some trials- to be grilled over the fire- to
purify us from things in our lives that aren’t from Him. Yes, sometimes it will hurt; maybe we’ll have
to lose some “juices,” things that seem as a part of who we are as the blood
that runs through our veins. But the end
result, as the trial passes, we emerge looking more like Him, and we’re ready
to be “served” to the lost and hungry souls in the world so that through us,
they might come to “taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Ps 34:8)
Along with setting us afire with a
passion for Him, the Lord wants His children to mature in their relationships
with Him and in their understanding of spiritual matters, to take on the
challenge of graduating to eating solid food and not to be content forever with
lingering in infancy. As believers in
Him, our appetite for His Word should continuously be growing so that we aren’t
content with just milk anymore. We
should want more depth. God doesn’t want
His children to remain as baby Christians but to grow and mature in Him as
“carnivorous Christians.” To crave the
spiritual meat of His written and spoken Word.
“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 5:13&14
Photo courtesy: www.123rf.com
~We’ve all heard of the phrase “pulling on her/ his heartstrings,”
but heart-chords? I was struggling to
decide what to name my blog. I wanted it
to be a name that was both creative and meaningful. As I pondered, my gaze fell upon my acoustic
guitar where it stands in my bedroom, and the Lord reminded me that our hearts-
our lives- are instruments. They are
constantly in song, but what melody our heart plays is each of our own
decisions. They can play a melody for
praise or for entertainment. A musician
selects his songs according to his audience.
So do we. Whether our audience is
the world or the Lord, our song will be different. This blog is designed to first, increase my
awareness in finding God and His guidance in my every day and second, to share
the music lessons He teaches me in tuning my heart to learn the chords of
praise He longs to play on my heart-instrument.
Music is a powerful tool. Use it
for His glory. “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of
praise to our God. Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3
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