Milk or Strong Meat?

Yes, the title of this post is milk or strong meat, but I need to catch you up with my notes from Hebrews 3 and 4 so you will understand my references to the hardening of our hearts. So stick with me…I promise we will get to milk and strong meat!

The heart…Hebrews 3:7-15
–harden not your hearts
–always err in their heart
–evil heart of unbelief
–hardened [heart] through the deceitfulness of sin
–harden not your hearts

The theme continues in chapter four, but more time is spent on that evil heart of unbelief.

Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

These warnings against hardening of our hearts are connected to unbelief. What does unbelief look like for a believer?
Maybe doubting God and His Word, not really believing the promises of His Word, not really believing in His imminent return. If we truly believed God’s Word, it would cause us to act differently.

The answer for a hardened heart and unbelief is found in God’s Word (4:12). We want to ignore It, pick and choose the parts we want to live by, rely on others to give It to us. Instead we need to dig in and study God’s Word for ourselves and we must be willing to obey and apply Biblical principles to our lives.

One last warning…our wicked, deceitful hearts tell us we are “okay,” that our hearts are not hardened toward God and His Word.

We must be willing to say “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23-24

Okay, now we’re ready for Hebrews 5:11-14 which goes right along with the theme of a hardened heart–only now we are warned against spiritual immaturity.

The author (debated, I tend to think it is Paul) says in verse 11 that he has more to say, difficult things to say, but can’t share them at that point because they are “dull of hearing.”

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross (callous), and their ears are dull of hearing; and their eyes have closed…”
Matthew 13:15

Verse 12 continues to explain that these people should have been teachers by now, but instead they need to be taught the basic principles of the Word of God again. The comparison continues by using milk and strong meat (vs. 12-14). These people needed milk as babes in Christ when they should have been ready for strong spiritual meat. Those that require milk are unskillful with the Word. Strong meat is for those that are mature, practiced and trained in the Word, and are able to discern between good and evil.

Some of you have heard me say that my favorite compliment I received about “There’s a Fly in my Tea!” was that it had some “strong meat” in it and this is why! 🙂

I don’t know where you are in your spiritual walk this morning, but here’s some things to consider…

How skillful (know, able to use, apply) are you with the Word of God?

If we’re not in It on a consistent basis AND allowing It to challenge and change our heart and life, it’s impossible for us to be skillful in It.

Do you desire strong spiritual meat? I mean are you digging deeper for Truths from God Word that challenge you and CHANGE you?

I’m afraid that we are too often content to stop with the “milk”–the basics, the easy to digest parts of Scripture–when the Lord has so much more to show us! The “strong meat” is going to be difficult to swallow at times, make us uncomfortable (convicted–ouch!), but that is how we grow spiritually. We continue to “tackle” areas of our life that are not pleasing to the Lord, little by little, and then He will reveal something else in our hearts and life that needs attention. It is a constant process in our spiritual lives–and if it isn’t happening it is not because we have “arrived” as a Christian. Instead it is probably because we have hardened our hearts…