A healthy apetite helps you grow up.

1 Peter 1 and 2 Peter I
All of us grow up. There are stages of life which mean learning. We progress from childhood to adulthood. It is the same in the Christian life which begins with the New Birth. It has babyhood, and a growing phase where we are pulled all ways. It also has a mature phase where we are more stable. As adults we can behave childishly but we cannot become babies again, we must aim to live as an adult. The normal course for Christians is to grow to maturity in Christ. If we continue in Christ's word we shall be his disciples. We can see two aspects.
1. NEGATIVELY - refuse what retards healthy growth.
There are foul things that destroy friendships, families and churches. As new believers their families ridiculed them, they were no longer pagans going to the temple, immoral living, they must rid themselves of these things, it means putting them off like old clothes and putting on the new life. There are styles that go out of fashion - we must put them off. These things must be thrown away.
a) Malice is wickedness but especially having it in for someone. This is being mean, touchy and abrasive.
b) Deceit involves having ulterior motives in your communications like baiting a hook in fishing.
c) Hypocrisy describes one who pretends to be something he is not. We behave in a different way for different people.
d) Envy means being jealous of another person or their things. Jealousy of other's status and things killed Jesus.
e) Slander means to speak unkindly against someone, we do other people down. The way we treat one another impacts on our relationship with God. This is not for you now. The sins of the tongue are serious. As long as we have wrong attitudes to those around us we will not grow spiritually. When we have wrong attitudes we impede our spiritual health. It does not matter how many meetings we go to, if we fill our minds with this spiritual junk food we shall never grow. We must rid ourselves of these 5 things. We do not need therapy, we need obedience. If we go through life with a scowl we are not obeying God. How can we go round full of self pity if we have tasted how good God is. Never forget how good God was.
2. POSITIVELY - crave God's word the way a baby craves milk.
Babies crave their mother's breast, we should crave spiritual food in the same way. We get hunger pains when we are hungry. Babies cry when they are hungry, you must feed them whatever time of the day it is. As believers we must be hungry for spiritual food.
a) We are hungry for spiritual food - that's natural - Psalm 42:l. We should be naturally drawn to God's word. We need God's word. Our souls should pant for God's word, it brings blessings, comfort and hope.
b) We are to be hungry for pure milk. Milk is good for us and tastes good - we want it. God has designed milk to be desired. We can tell if milk is impure, if it has been watered down. We need rich nutritious healthy milk. We want our Bible to be explained to us, we do not want some weak, diluted word, we want the whole word with nothing missing. Often the word is diluted in many churches to make us feel good, it does make us feel bad sometimes. The word is pure, spiritually pure. Romans 2:l. We cannot know God without having our minds instructed by the Word of God. Religious feelings without truth in the head will do us no good. Something must be known and felt to do us good. The word is nourishing - babies need mother's milk which is nourishing for us. God's word is the staple diet for us today. Mother's milk immunises to a certain extent. God's word immunises us in the same way. We have to be spiritually nourished by God's word in the same way. We should look forward to hearing God's word and applying it so we can resist temptation.
c) We are only going to grow up as we feed well. We cannot grow without God's word. We love to be fed. We will keep feeding because we have tasted how good it is. Psalm 34:8 and ll9:l03. It is a joy when people come eager, expectant, wanting to hear the voice of the Lord. We come and hear God's word feeling low and depressed and go out feeling much refreshed and renewed. We will keep feeding because growth takes time. Preachers love to see that people are interested. They feel disturbed when people appear to be disinterested. We should listen to God's word and expect it to speak to us. No child can grow can grow without food. Romans l0:l7. We can use a study Bible with a commentary to to help us understand. We need to work and make an effort to feed. We have to eat or we won't grow. Sometimes we don't have the appetite to feed, but what requires effort to do most pleases God. We do not know which sermon will bless us most, which words will leap out at us and speak to us. We often seek to feed and be with God and we will grow.
3. DEFINITIVELY - it is God's will for us to grow in Christ.
All of us behave childishly at times. All of us can have retarded development. We often believe we are stuck the way we are. We say genetic forces make us the way we are. We should never have a fatalism.
How is it discerned? Growing in Christ turns knowledge into wisdom, learning from the word humbles. Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with intelligence, age or time, its all to do with spiritual wisdom and grace.
Children have a narrow focus. Spiritual growth makes us mature and have a wider view. Believers similarly as they get older should become more balanced and wise, more sensitive and gracious and more self-controlled. The growth Peter has in mind is in respect of salvation. What he's talking about is increase in the power of the gospel in the heart and life, increasing delight in the author of our salvation. What he's talking about is increase in the joy of our salvation, increase in gratitude for our salvation, and increase in the assurance of our salvation. It is growth begun and sustained by the gospel. We should not be spiritual fatalists, we should not be stuck in a rut. We should feed on pure spiritual milk so we will feel better. Now that we have tasted the word of the Lord, are there those who have not fed on it and digested and obeyed it - known Jesus in a personal way and been saved? Seek the Lord while he may be found.