Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper room Daily Devotional "Road to Health" for Thursday, 31 July 2014 - Read Hebrews 5:11-14

Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper room Daily Devotional "Road to Health" for Thursday, 31 July 2014 - Read Hebrews 5: Re-Crucifying Jesus
11-14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
Everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.(Hebrews 5:13 (NRSV))
A mother brought her rather thin child to our clinic. She had weaned him at one year of age. I asked her what she was feeding him now. She said, “Tea without milk and cornmeal porridge.” I asked to see the child’s “Road to Health Chart,” a medical chart that includes a very useful graph indicating how the child is gaining weight over time in comparison with the 50th percentile for all children of that age. This child had stopped gaining weight and was heading for malnutrition, a most serious condition. I explained to his mother what to feed him, emphasizing foods high in protein to supplement the carbohydrates in his diet. In Hebrews we read of Christians who were suffering from spiritual malnutrition and therefore had stopped growing. This too is a serious condition. Christian spiritual growth is aimed at ultimately attaining the likeness of our Savior. Our nourishment comes from studying God’s word and daily prayer contact with Jesus, who described himself as the bread of life. Jesus promised that those who come to him and believe in him would never go spiritually hungry or thirsty. (See John 6:35.)
The Author: John McCutcheon (Limpopo, South Africa)
Thought for the Day: Are we gaining weight on the “spiritual health” chart?
Prayer: Loving God, give us a new hunger for your word. Help us to be faithful in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Prayer focus: Malnourished children
-------