BEFORE we get to the next chapter of A Guide to Spiritual Growth, I want to share something derived from a personal meditation. The item below is from C. John Miller’s devotional book titled Saving Grace, from New Growth Press. I referenced this book in the previous posting; have enjoyed reading it over the years and highly recommend it. The title verse, Matt. 5:6, is one of my favorites.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” – Matt 5:6
THIS website/blog is intended to bring lessons for growth in Christ, encouragements to persevere, challenges to press on in putting off the “old man” and putting on Christ (Eph. 4:21 – 24), with comforts knowing that the process is always of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:23). The Apostle of our Faith had occasion to note and emphasize the dilemma of our sin sick human nature, saying that the will is present in me, but how to do it, I do not find (Rom 7:18). But in the same context he is quick to point out with Christ centered confidence, that what the Lord has begun in him, He will complete (Rom 7:24-25 cp. Phil 1:6, 1Thess. 5:24). But what is our role in all of this that the Lord promises to do in us? Well, it really is not rocket science, nor is it anything new or mysterious. How does the prophet Isaiah put it?
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. (Isa 55:1-2)
ISAIAH’S words are our Lord’s words of Matt 5:6.
ONE day as I was driving home I noticed a neighbor’s huge sunflowers growing in their front yard. I thought they weren’t there in the winter and now they are! This brought to mind that if I were to take the time to stop my car, sit on the curb and patiently watch the inevitable movement of these flowers, I would see them gently turn and track the sun across the sky, absorbing its energy as they drew the nutrients from the soil in this mysterious process of growth – simply abiding where they were planted. There is more that can be learned from this metaphor, but for now it is enough to just muse the moment and remember:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are those who are righteous, for they shall be satisfied.” His whole Sermon on the Mount is about how obedience to the law is not only about behavior, but also about heart orientation. What God calls us to is not a pharisaic self-righteousness. The Pharisees were nice, decent people, but they missed the inward and upward and outward relationship of Jesus’s teaching.
If you are a true believer, your response to Jesus’s words should be “Help!” Those who know their inability to be righteous, and ask for help, will be blessed. The very idea of eating and drinking is that what you need comes from outside yourself. You don’t have the righteousness God requires, and, therefore, this is what you long for. Jesus wants us to have an appetite for, to long for, what we do not have—the righteousness that comes from him. It is blessed to long for what Jesus wants to give you. It is blessed to be dissatisfied. It is blessed to aim for perfection. You are not going to be perfect in this life, but you aim for it because that’s what Jesus commands. You work for it, you long for it, and you put off your sins. That’s what it means to have an appetite for God.
