Everything You Need (Friday Devotional)

“Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

- 1 Peter 2:1-3

Last week, Lindsey and I tried something new with our son Andrew: for the first time, we gave him some solid food to eat. His reactions started as soon as the mashed sweet potatoes touched his lips. First came eagerness and curiosity, his little body wiggling with excitement at the chance to do something new. As the taste of the sweet potatoes started to settle on his tongue, his brow furrowed into a puzzled expression. That confusion morphed almost immediately into displeasure—between the curled lip and the pleading look to his mama to rescue him, it was apparent that he was not a fan of this strange new food. He kept sticking his tongue out and licking his lips, and we were just starting to think he might be coming around when he delivered the coup de grâce by spitting up seemingly every bit of sweet potatoes we’d given him.

Maybe we should have known better than to expect a different result—the pediatrician had told us at our last appointment that Andrew didn’t need to start eating solid food until he was six months old (though we were welcome to try earlier anyway). Giving him solid food now isn’t going to hurt him, she said, but it isn’t necessary yet. He’s already getting everything he needs from his milk.

As Christians grow in faith, 1 Peter likens us to babies who long for “the pure, spiritual milk” of God. When you place your faith in Christ, you are trusting God to sustain, nourish, and empower your faith, to walk beside you as you grow. Just like a mother’s milk gives a baby everything he or she needs to grow, God gives you all you need to grow into your salvation if you will place yourself in His hands.

But there is always the temptation to throw in something extra, to corrupt a spiritual diet that is already giving you everything you need. When God’s way seems too slow or too merciful or too impractical, sometimes we respond by supplementing His will with our own, deviating from life in Christ just to get a taste of something different. This is not only unnecessary, but harmful—God calls on His children to trust Him fully, not just to go along when His way is immediately appealing. To choose your way instead of God’s is idolatry, and however enticing idolatry seems initially, it never fails to disappoint in the end.

The fact is that, in Christ, God has given you everything necessary for abundant, and ultimately eternal, life. There is nothing that this world can add to the gospel that will make it more beneficial, nothing you can try outside of His will that will bring you the joy of fellowship with Him. So may you seek contentment, fulfillment, purpose, and salvation itself not in the ways and wares of this world, but in the kingdom of God—for there you will find everything you really need.