DESPERATELY HUNGRY AND THIRSTY

Today's verse is Matthew 5:6."Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (NIV)
It is not a natural thing to be hungry for anything that is not physical food or to thirst for anything that is not physical water. It is therefore interesting for the Lord Jesus to speak highly about a different kind of hunger and thirst in today's verse.

Psalm 42:1 says, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." The deer in that song had not drank water for a long time and if it could not drink water it would die. When it saw a stream of water, the deer began panting like a dog. It desired the water desperately - a matter of life and death.

There are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness in such a manner. Their lives reflect a hungry pursuit and a thirsty desire for a right relationship with God. In everything they do, they serve God, worship Him, and pray to Him as if their hearts are always bowed down in His presence. This is the desperate hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus talked about in today's verse.

Righteousness is the spiritual condition wherein a person is spiritually healthy. A person who is right with God is in a state of spiritual health. God nourishes such a person with an invigorating, life-sustaining relationship with Him; he is filled with God's righteousness.

This was the original spiritual state of Adam when God created him. But this original condition of righteousness changed because of Adam's sin. Consequently Adam and Eve realized that their confidence and ease in God's presence suddenly turned into fear. From their original consciousness of God, they became self-conscious. They became enslaved to being self-conscious about their own appearance and their feelings of fear and doubt. Suddenly they were ashamed of their nakedness; previously their nakedness didn't bother them at all.

This self-consciousness (the fear, the doubts, and the shame) has been passed down from generation to generation. Since the time Adam disobeyed, he and his descendants, who include us, have not been right with God. Thus, Man is now unrighteous by nature. Disobeying God is now the natural tendency of man. Given a choice, man would choose to please himself rather than obey God.

Adam’s disobedience caused him to be unrighteous, and the unrighteousness we inherited from him caused us to be disobedient. Thus there is now the vicious cycle of our unrighteousness causing us to disobey God and our disobedience causing us to be not right with Him.

Some were able to break this vicious cycle in their lives. They did it by consistently trusting and obeying God. One such person was Abraham. The Bible describes him as trusting God enough to obey Him. And God counted Abraham's trust and obedience as righteousness on Abraham's part. Those who were able to see this vicious cycle of unrighteousness and disobedience broken in their lives are like Abraham. They trusted God enough to obey him.
The Bible says that those who say they are believers of Jesus Christ should be doers of the word and not just hearers. When they merely hear God's word and do not obey, they are deceiving themselves.

The nation Israel, the people God called His own, has always had this problem of hearing and not obeying. They knew the word of God but they habitually disobeyed. Even for Christians today, this is a prevailing condition.

Man’s prevailing condition of hearing and not obeying can be likened to the condition of Satan. The devil knows God and understands the reality of God more than any of us. He is even allowed to communicate with God and to hear God. But does he obey God? No, and we must not be like him.

We must be like Christ.

Jesus was obedient even when it was difficult to do so. His obedience was such that He humbled Himself and became obedient to the Father even to the point of death. Even to the death on the cross. Jesus willfully went through it all even though He knew it would be very painful. He heard the Father and He obeyed.

We, who carry His name as Christians, must pattern our lives, our desires, our ambitions, and even our problems to the ways of Jesus.

When the times come that our desires and pursuits bring us against the words of Jesus, and a conflict arises between our desire and the desire of God, what are we going to do? We hear God and we understand what He wants us to do.

If we obey God, we are being like Christ. But if we do not obey, doesn't that make us like the devil who hears God but does not obey? Following Jesus, by serving Him, worshipping Him, and bowing down everything in our lives unto Him is the true pursuit of righteousness. If we don't follow Him, there would be no real hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Just a word of caution. Whenever we try to obey God, Satan could try to confuse our thoughts with other God-like commands. Satan may try to derail our obedience in many ways.

Sometimes Satan may bring our thoughts to some contrary verses in Scripture. For example, when Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days, Satan used biblical verses in order to tempt Him. Strange as it may seem, biblical verses can be used to veer us away from pursuing righteousness.

Other times, Satan might try to hinder our obedience with a false sense of values. For example, God might tell us to refuse a particular transaction because it is crooked, dishonest, or displeasing to Him. Satan might then try to bring us to a false sense of guilt: "He who does not provide for his family is worse than the unbelievers". So which should we obey? God's command to refuse a crooked deal or the sense of guilt which says we should do everything to provide for the family?

The correct way is to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Trusting and obeying God above all else. If that desperate hunger and thirst are not satisfied, our spirits die. The vicious cycle of unrighteousness and disobedience will then remain unbroken.

But those who desperately pursue righteousness will be filled.

God bless us all.