What Beverage Are You Craving?

Have you ever been around a hungry baby? Have you ever held one that normally nurses? What do they do? The “root” for their nourishment – the momma’s milk. We are to “crave” God’s Word the same way.

1 Peter 2:2-3 (TPT) ² In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word. For this “milk” will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life— ³ especially now that you have had a taste of the goodness of the Lord Jehovah and have experienced His kindness.

I am pretty sure you have “tasted” God’s goodness at one time or another, am I right?!? I can almost bet it came out of a time where the circumstance was not going as you would have liked. I’m pretty sure, you and or others you know, prayed about the situation for you – right?! So you can relate when verse 3 says ‘especially not that you have had a taste of the goodness of the Lord’. Let me ask you this: after that circumstance changed, did you “crave” to know this God/Jesus more? Or did you want to be around the people that had prayed for you? THAT was craving!

Just like we as humans, when we were babies, we HAD to have liquid nourishment in order to survive. Some of us, (me) got that nourishment through an IV Feeding Tube, some through a bottle, and some straight from our mother’s breast. We are ALL born with this craving, desire to be fed and built up, strengthened, connected. The words that got my attention in these verses, was in verse 2 “intensely” and “pure”. I had a MEF (mind’s eye flash) while reading these verses, and like I bet your mind’s eye, you know what a very hungry baby looks like. Well, when I got to the part of “pure” the visual changed to ‘options’ that were being fed a baby. Even though a baby doesn’t “know” what is good and pure, verses polluted and sour, their taste buds know! I’ve seen this when a baby had to be given a bottle instead of the breast, and they are EAGER to be fed – then just ONE suck (sometimes, just the touching of the lips), nope! The baby says, ‘no way’ and is not happy with what they are being fed. In my MEF, I actually saw one bottle that looked good and pure, clean, white. The other bottle was darker, had spots, looked lumpy, and was strange. Still ‘looked’ like milk, but just not right. It was NOT pure! I saw tons and tons of babies lined up, yet they were able to go to the milk and choose for themselves. They all seemed to pause for just a millisecond, and then reach for the pure, white, silky milk. Like the time it took to just blink their eyes, they chose the pure and healthy one! Then, a person came along and stood by the bottles, they started to hand out the bottles. Like trusting babies would, they just reached for what was given to them, and started to drink. Many pulled away from the bottle quickly, scowling and cried while turning back to the person and reaching for the “other” bottle. There were some babies, that initially pulled away, but then looked at the person they trusted and believed in that was handing them the bottle – and they sipped it again. They made a face, looked at the person again, sipped again, and then moved on. They didn’t feel satisfied, nourished or even connected – instead there seemed to be a distance created between them.

I’ve seen this too, in babies that cannot nurse and someone else needs to feed them a bottle. They started out only craving their momma, but then when other people “fed” them, they no longer craved that intimacy with their mother only. It then became about just being fed.

I pray my dear friend, that you CRAVE the pure spiritual milk that the Lord Jesus has to offer. You can only be fed it through the Holy Spirit. Sure, there are substitutes, formulas, stand-byes and clever false teachings that have altered the pureness of God’s Word. At the very least, they are watered down bits of the truth. Dear friend – do NOT get fooled by the substitute – CRAVE the true, pure Spirit filled nourishment of the Lord. If you’ve been getting by one the little crumbs you’ve been tossed, then right here and now – stand firm! Ask your Father to put in you a “craving for His pure milk” and that He will allow the Spirit to be the One to feed you! Ask Him where you need to go in His Word to be fed His pure truths. I started in the Proverbs and Psalms. Match the date with the book and read like that ;-)

Sure there are tons and tons of reading plans you can follow, verses you can look up by topic, situation, history, theme, story… It doesn’t matter – as long as you ask for and then follow that craving – you WILL be fed His pure goodness!

Practical Help:

11. To look up verses by a word or subject, you can go to biblegateway.com or just Google “verses about___”. You will be amazed at all that comes up! I use this method often, when something comes up, and I want God’s perspective and truth on it.

22. Most bibles have a concordance in the back, it is both by word and subject. Look there and see if you find what you are ‘craving’ for.

33. Translations – this is a BIG thing!! I believe that the Lord gave us people that are very skilled and talented at translating the bible into languages that speak to us personally, directly, to our very heart and soul. My very first bible was a King James version. I loved the poetry of it, but it didn’t seem to relate to me and my life very often. As I began to ‘study’ the bible, an older woman suggested the NASB (New American Standard Bible) because it was the closest to the original Greek that the bible was written in. I used that version for years and years. Then, I started hearing about this “Living Bible” and the “Message” version. They totally spoke my language! However, I wanted to be able to follow along in a church when the pastor was reading, and the Message is VERY hard to do that with! I usually pull up 3-4 different versions, just to get a better idea of what the verse is telling me. I use NLT (new living translation), MSG (the message), NASB (new American standard bible) and TPT (the passion translation). Sometimes the NIV (new international version) fits what I’m trying to understand.

44. Follow some sort of reflecting method. ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) or SOAP (Scripture, Opinion, Application, Prayer) or STAR (Scripture, Thoughts, Application, Response) – something that will help lead you to “meditate” on God’s words that you have just read. Of course memorization is the best way to “chew” on God’s word lol.

It doesn’t matter what version you use, just find one that you understand, and that you will CRAVE to look in and search for the treasures that His word offers. It doesn’t matter what method you use to chew on His word. Just start and do it. Yes, you may try one way, and it not feel very comfortable – that’s ok – try another way. Pray and ask or better yet, invite the Spirit to lead you and guide you to the way that is right for you! He created you after all, He really does know you better than you know yourself ;-) Be well my friend, be safe, and most of all BE blessed!