Here's the Fourth in the series of the Beatitudes....

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst For Righteous....

Have you ever been so hungry or thirsty that you thought you might faint? Or so hungry that you could not think clearly or so thirsty that your judgment was impaired? If so, I feel your pain...if not, consider yourself blessed already.

When Jesus shared this fourth Beatitude, He knew all too well the desperation that can be caused when one grows hungry or is parched with thirst; after all,  He had just recently returned from His confrontation with Satan who had tempted Him to turn the stones to bread. His reply, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4

Here, He was telling those that would listen and learn that true hunger or thirst for a relationship with a righteous and holy God would be blessed and they would indeed be filled with the Spirit of the one they sought.

Jesus knew that the Old Testament shared such imagery as in Psalm 42:1-2, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God?"  Or perhaps He had memorized the Prophet Isaiah who said, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat!" Isaiah 55:1

We are truly a needy people...and when it comes to hunger or thirst; well, we are all too ready to do whatever is necessary to meet those most basic needs...just go to any war-ravaged or storm-weary place in this world and see the lines of people, waiting to procure food and water. But the true hunger is the hunger of the soul...this is a discontentment that must be met!

The discontent soul knows that there is something basically wrong deep down in our being...in the innermost recesses of our soul, there is a God-shaped hole that only a righteous and holy God can fill. There is this vacuum that consumes us and drives us to fill it with pleasure, work, riches, people or things....but no matter how hard we try, it is God, and GOD ALONE, that can make us WHOLE...AND IT IS ONLY HE THAT CAN FILL THAT HOLE!

So, do you hunger and thirst for a right relationship with your Heavenly Father or are you striving and conniving to fill that emptiness with everything else that Satan and the demons of his dominion might offer...if so, you will be eternally hungry and thirsty. But, if you allow God to fill your heart, body, mind and soul...YOU WILL BE BLESSED and FILLED TO OVERFLOWING WITH THE GOODNESS OF GOD!

The choice is yours....so choose carefully...your choice has eternal ramifications and consequences....choose Christ and be hungry and thirsty no more!

Blessed by the Father...Hungry for Him and His Righteous,

WPQ

Poem for the day:

There are those times, my precious Lord

When your love seems far away;

But when I invite your Spirit in

You meet all my needs each day.

It’s then your Spirit fills me up

With life that springs anew;

I know my life will never be the same

Since I given my heart to you!