Learning to feed yourself

When I was little, my grandfather would let me feed myself whenever I was at his home, a welcomed change from my mother feeding me. It was messy as I was still learning to do it correctly. But eventually, by doing it myself, I mastered it. It is not strange for a baby to be fed, but that must change as they grow and mature. 

In Hebrews 5:11-14, we receive this warning from the writer:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (ESV).

The writer later outlines the “basic principles of the oracles of God'' as repentance, faith in Jesus, baptism, and eternal life. And while those are all critical to understand, the writer considers them elementary, meaning that we must build upon them and grow beyond just knowing the basics. 

“Building a consistent intake of scripture in your life is the single most transformational habit you can commit to.”

How, then, do we go onto maturity? One way we do that is by learning to feed ourselves the solid food of the word of God by building in our lives a habit of regularly reading and studying scripture. If you have never read the New Testament in its entirety, that is a great and modest goal to aim for. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament; if you read one every day, you will finish the New Testament in under nine months. Finishing the Old Testament is also attainable. You can read it entirely in under seven months with just fifteen minutes of daily reading. 

Bible.com offers many great reading plans that can take you through the Bible, in whole and in part, and I would encourage you to check them out. However you decide to go about reading God’s Word, I encourage you to have a plan. Building a consistent intake of scripture in your life is the single most transformational habit you can commit to.

Additionally, many of us only know God’s voice through the voice of our pastor or preacher. That is not enough. We must learn to hear and discern God’s voice for ourselves, which will only happen as we get alone with God and give ear and attention to His word. Let us not be unskilled or immature children, but instead, pick up our fork and knife, so to speak, and learn to feed ourselves and feast on the riches of the solid food of God’s word.

Fady Ghobrial is a pastor at Arabic Baptist Church of Boston and a Ministry Fellow with Christian Union Gloria (Harvard College).