The Weaning Process

Like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. —Psalm 131:2

Anursing infant is dependent on its mother’s milk. As that baby grows, there comes a point it needs to be weaned from the mother. However, weaning doesn’t happen overnight.

During this process, the child may cry and be demanding. Something is being taken away that the child thinks it can’t live without. Once the child has been weaned, however, it’s content with whatever the mother provides.

We, as followers of Jesus, need to go through a similar process. As we grow spiritually, God begins to wean us from things that we think we can’t live without—possessions, comfort, the longing for life to “work.”

God has to bring us to the place where we can live without those things we were dependent on as spiritual children. If our soul is like an unweaned child, we will be demanding, fretful, anxious, and stressed. But if our soul is like a weaned child, our hearts will be calm. We are able to “be still and know that [He is] God” (Psalm 46:10).