Room to Grow - Healthy Appetite
Therefore, Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good (1 Peter 2:1-3).
Our Father, You are good, and what you do is good... (Psalm 119:68). In an outburst of praise, David declared, Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him (Psalm 34:8).
The apostle Peter also uses similar words to describe to new believers the experiential nature of Your goodness. He starts his letter on a note of praise, celebrating new birth, teaching much of what he had learned from the Lord Jesus Himself (John 3:1-3):
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth... love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again...through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:3; 22-23).
Father, You do not call us to an endless cycle of trying and constantly failing to "do good"—frustrated by the limits of our own power. You call us to a new birth and to a lifelong process of purification through the truth of Your word.
Your word is the sustaining force—the pure spiritual milk—that enables us to grow and thrive. And You call us to actively participate in the process, creating room to grow by getting rid... of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
Lord, Moses prayed, You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence (Psalm 90:8). Reveal to us the hidden areas where malice, deceit, hypocrisy and envy lurk. Reveal the pride, bitterness, impatience and all the other drivers of slander, gossip, and destructive words.
We confess each one of these sins before You in all their specifics—without excuse. Purify us through the truth of Your word. Conform us to the image of Your Son through the sanctifying work of Your Spirit (1 Peter 1:2).
Change the unhealthy appetites of our past. Help us to crave pure spiritual milk. To grow up in our salvation. To grow in sincere love for each other (1 Peter 1:22). To grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:15).
To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 5:11).
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