Blessed are Those Who Hunger

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."

Matthew 5:6,  

Lord, I come before You in humility. Open the eyes of my heart... eyes to see and ears to hear that I may grasp this beautiful Beatitude that You spoke on the Sermon on the Mount nearly 2,000 years ago. Over the millennia, millions of Your followers have read and meditated on these Beatitudes, seeking the meaning and how each one of them could bring godly changes in their lives. Lord give me insight that You want me to share in this blog. 

Righteousness

How can any of us attain to true righteousness? "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Only Jesus Christ was completely righteous, having no sin at all.

"As it is written:

'There is none righteous, no, not one;... none who understands;... none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside;... there is none who does good, no, not one.' 'or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...' Romans 3:10-12, 23, Psalm 14:1-3

Seems to be a pretty bleak and discouraging, right? Where is our hope of ever achieving righteousness? He tells us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. How do we do that?

Hunger -  To pine, to long for... to famish... fig. to crave... to be hungry and starving.

Thirst - to thirst 

These are both powerful action words. Jesus wants us to seek after and crave righteousness... to desire righteousness with our whole heart. In the world that we live in it seems like righteousness is impossible to achieve. As the verse above say's "There is none righteous, no not one..." 

Those listening to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount were likely very convicted in their hearts from the messages Jesus gave that day. As He spoke they could envision in their own hearts where their sin was. They longed to make things right. They hungered and thirsted for righteousness. That hunger deeply inspired them to repent of`their sins.

It is the same for us today. If we have been in conflict in a relationship, it is important to repent to the one who we hurt. We need to come before God and ask Him to reveal our responsibility in that conflict; so that we may reconcile with the person we have hurt.

There is a favorite verse of mine in Psalms penned by King David:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me to the way everlasting!" Psalm 139:23, 24

So how do we remedy unrighteousness and sin?... basically to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to repent before God. We need to seek His righteousness. So what is righteousness? Here are some definitions.

Righteousness: dikaiosune Strongs #1343, equity of (character or act) specifically justification and righteousness.

Righteous: dikaios Strongs #1342, equitable, innocent, holy, just, righteous

Equity, Equitable: Thorndike Barnhardt Dictionary Fair, Just

Faith in Christ

'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,.. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: "The just shall live by faith."' Romans 1:16,17

Here is the good news. The verse above says that "There is none righteous, no, not one;..." 

Continuing in Romans 3, here is the hope! 

"But, now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For their is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:21-26

What I love about the word of God is that truth is found through so many authors, kings, prophets, disciples, and apostles. And yet, through so many voices speaking through the inspiration of God we find consistency of truth, each a verification of the truths through thousands of years. 

In this blog post we are "hearing" from Matthew, Paul and next is John. Herein lies more truth.

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." I John 5-10

"My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the whole world." I John 2:1, 2

Propitiation: Strongs #2434 Atonement

Wow!!! God is our light. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and through the precious blood of Jesus, God's Only Son we are cleansed from all our sin. When we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. And He cleanses us from all unrighteousness!

We hunger and thirst for Him, our Jesus, our righteousness!!!

*Note: When John wrote his gospel, Revelations, and his epistles he was an elderly man... persecuted, and then banished to the island of Patmos. He lived and wrote in a cave. So as he was writing to his readers, he called them his little children. John was the only apostle living. The other apostles were martyred for their faith in Jesus.

(My husband and I had the incredible opportunity to go to this island and peek into the cave... seeing the place where he did his writing.)