Balanced Diet. 2Timothy 4:3-4 (Amplified Version)
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold, 4 and will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions [and will accept the unacceptable].
From 0-2years, my kids eat literally any food I gave them. I was so delighted they were not fuzzy eaters that I went out of my way each time to make healthy meals for them. I mixed all the vegetables, vitamins, carbohydrates and protein to create irresistible baby meals. I never knew one day the story will be different. Upon reaching age 3, they soon became aware some foods were sweeter than others. I am sure you can guess what happened next- they wanted to eat all the sweets without vegetables and soon it was a battle to encourage them to do otherwise. What was even more worrying was the fact that they were more prone to infections when they eat only sweets than in previous years when healthy diets were the norm.
As I pondered on this sudden change with my kids, the holy spirit reminded me that most Christians in our age are very similar in their attitude towards spiritual meals. They cherry pick which scriptures they like, and discard wherever appears challenging. They prefer Gods promises to his warnings or pending judgement. They also prefer pastors that encourage their sinful lifestyle to those that preach Gods truth. This was the type of scenario Paul warned us about in the scripture above. Maybe when you first became a Christian you accepted any truth from the bible without arguments.
However, as the years rolled by, you began to question if the word of God is really true. You wonder if a loving God can send sinners to Hell. God’s word may sometimes be hard to embrace because we do not understand everything now. God understands this struggle and is happy to walk with you through your doubts back to faith just like Timothy was encouraged here to embrace truth so he will not fall prey to the deceit of the enemy. Let us examine our spiritual diet.
Are you cherry picking only what is palatable and leaving the challenging word? Only a healthy diet guarantees good health. Shalom. (Nnenna Moneme)