Daily Devotional

I have spent many decades listening to children and grandchildren crying out for their baby bottles. They really have no understanding of the value of the milk. They just want it and want it now! The apostle Peter uses that familiar imagery to speak of our need for the Word of God which causes us to grow in the Lord.

It is curious to me that Peter does not command us to read our Bibles. He understands enough about human nature to know that we do what we really want to do. In other words, if we really want to grow in the Lord, we will want to spend time in the Word of God. They go hand in hand. And both are our choices. God does not force the desire to spend time in the Word on us. We have to learn to crave the Word of God like we, as newborns, used to automatically long for nourishment. It means going back to the basics. I want milk! I want it now!          

In 1980 I visited India for the first time.  I met an old man at Telagu Baptist Church who came up to me after the service with a ratty old, torn-up book. There was barely any binding and many of the pages were torn. He held it up to my face and with a huge, toothless, smile he began to weep with joy. My translator explained that the elderly man had finally received a Bible, one of a very few in the town. It was his prized possession. I will never forget how he held that Bible against his lips like he was drinking from a baby bottle. This was his life-giving source of nourishment!          

I have thought about that man many times over the years. I have scores of Bibles, in many translations. But owning Bibles and longing for the Word is very different. I need to go back to the basics. I need milk! I need it now!          

I invite you to hold your Bible close to your lips and say with me: "Heavenly Father, renew my child-like craving for the pure milk of the Word of God, that by it I may grow in respect to the fullness of my salvation.”

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation