How is your spiritual appetite at the moment?

John Brand  |  Features
Date posted:  8 Mar 2026
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How is your spiritual appetite at the moment?

Photo: iStock

How’s your appetite? It’s a question a doctor will often ask to try and work out if something is wrong with your health, because there is a direct correlation between a healthy appetite and a healthy body.

Generally speaking, a healthy appetite accompanies a healthy body, and sick people tend to have a diminished hunger. But that is not only true with physical appetites but with spiritual appetites as well.

In his first letter, Peter challenges us to “long for the pure spiritual milk” of God’s Word (1 Peter 2v2). “Long” could be translated as “crave”, and the comparison he makes is with “newborn infants”. It’s a powerful image, isn’t it? It’s the idea of a baby, literally just out of womb, taking their first gulps of air and desperately in need of nourishment. It’s a picture of all-consuming hunger and thirst, an appetite so intense and powerful that nothing else will satisfy.

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