1 Peter 2:2 - A Baby Appetite

"Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation."  (1 Peter 2:2, NASB)

Years ago, my wife and I moved from Chicago to a small, rural town in Missouri. While helping start a church there I got a part time job at a feed supply store. That's where I learned that livestock can actually starve from eating cheap hay. If the hay is poor quality, it can fill the stomach of the animal. But without the proper minerals and vitamins, the creature dies of malnutrition.

This verse isn't telling us to reduce the Bible to the most simplistic understanding. It's describing a fundamental appetite - a hunger for the right thing. It seems like most newborn babies, even with their eyes shut, instinctively know where to turn their head for their next, nutritious meal. They cry if they aren't fed.

That's the image of what it's like to hunger to have the word of God. Reading it is taking it in. Studying and meditating gets it into our mind. But obeying and following it is how it will nourish us and help us grow, spiritually.

Father,
Knowing that an answer to this prayer will lead to more prayers...
Give us a hunger to know and live by Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen.