Newborn!

Newborn!

1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 2:1-3 NLT

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God... 

So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

I was always taught that this instruction "crave the milk"  is for new Christians. I'm 62 and have been a Christian for more than 40 years. For many of those 40 years I struggled with sin, lust, feelings of unworthiness, etc. Sometimes I lived a double life, 1 foot in sin, 1 foot in the church, trying to be good while trapped in a prison of lies and deceptful behavior. 

Peter reminds me that I am a newborn baby. 40 years - what is that? It is like 40 minutes of a newborn's life. "Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God" ...

SO

"Get rid of" - 

Peter breaks the analogy here. Babies can't get rid of anything, but we are called to get rid of

• all evil behavior: you know what your evil behavior is. I certainly know what mine is
• deceit - no more double life, come into the light
• hypocrisy - saying one thing, doing the other
• jealousy - wishing we had someone else's life
• all unkind speech - but I so dearly love my sarcastic wit 

Crave:

We have this one short mortal life to prepare for eternity. We have started the journey but we are in the newborn stage. What does a newborn need? His mother's tit, the sustenance, the closeness, the bonding, the milk, pure spiritual milk - not Chinese milk powder - mother's milk. This is why Paul tells Timothy to beware of the false teachers - babies need pure milk. If I drink the pure spiritual milk then I will grow into a "full experience of salvation". 

what if I don't crave pure spiritual milk? It probably means that 1) I haven't got rid of all evil behavior and that behavior is choking off my new life. In the parable of the soils and the seed, some of the seed gets choked out by the weeds. Is that you? me? I need to fully repent and share my darkness with some brothers or sisters, step into the light. OR 2) I'm not born again yet. Stillborn babies don't crave milk. Are you, am I truly born again? If so, we need to "get rid of evil behavior" and "crave the pure milk". Then we need to 

Cry Out: 

Cry out to God, our mother for nourishment. Ask the Holy Spirit to nourish your soul as you sit down to read the Word of God. Study God's Word, sign up for reading plan on Bible.com or download the Bible app and read. Crave and Cry Out. 

Father God, Mother God (in keeping with the analogy), Show me those things in my life that I need to get rid of. Help me to share them in my small group and bring them into the light. Create in me a craving for your Word. I cry out right now to you. "I'm hungry..Feed me please." Thank you.