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"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
(Matthew 5:6)
To be right with God and our fellow man is as satisfying and fulfilling as food is to a starving man or water is to one who is dying of thirst. I read the account of Major Vivian Gilbert regarding the thirst his men endured during WWI in the desert as they fought the Ottomans. He wrote about how their heads ached, their eyes were bloodshot, their tongues swollen, and lips black and bursting. They knew of water wells in Sheria, but unless they reached them, all would die. They fought the enemy until they retreated, and then they entered the city. The first thing they looked for was water, which they found in stone cisterns—cool, clear, life-giving water. The major then wrote these words: "I believe that we all learned our first real Bible lesson on that march from Beersheba to the Sheria wells. If such were our thirst for God and for righteousness, for His will in our lives, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit we would be." (MacArthur, The Beatitudes, p. 115-16)
One of two passions will dominate our lives as we sojourn here on earth: either we will hunger and thirst for God, or we will continue to hunger and thirst after pleasure and pleasing ourselves. Lloyd-Jones is right when he writes that when we put happiness before righteousness, it leads us to misery.
Jesus made a startling statement later in His Sermon on the Mount. He said in Matthew 5:20, "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." The Pharisees were trying to obtain a righteousness or right standing with God, not through a relationship with Him, but through the keeping of man-made rules and regulations, which led them to be critical and fault-finding of others. It is so ironic that those who were trying to please God were moving further from Him. And that is the way with all religions outside of Christianity. We can never do enough to earn heaven. Our rightness with God must come from another, from God Himself... and herein lies the beauty and wonder of the cross of Jesus Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
This leads us to our next question:
What do the hungry and thirsty receive?
In Matthew 5:6, Jesus teaches us that those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness are blessed, and they shall be filled. "Blessed" is makarios, which means content, joyful, and satisfied. It is much more than mere happiness, for happiness can come and go, but this makarios state of living is much deeper. The truly blessed and satisfied ones are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, holiness, and the things of God.
Are you longing for the Lord and His righteousness? Has something or someone taken the place of your passion for Jesus? If so, confess that as sin now and turn back to the Lord. Only Jesus can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls!
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