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 long for, to famish, to satisfy our craving to nurture our hungry and starving bodies.

Thirst - to thirst, seeking the water we need to keep our bodies hydrated.

These are both powerful action words. Jesus wants us to seek after and crave righteousness... to desire righteousness with our whole heart, just as we do to nurture our bodies. 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 struggle; 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, Moses, 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.)

Hungering for Righteousness - Covid Update 2

Reading
Matthew 5:6

“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice (righteousness).”

Matthew 5:6 NLT

Our country, our world is in crisis. The World Wide Pandemic of the Covid 19 virus is highly contagious and spreading like the wild fires we had a few years ago. Just one little spark could ignite an entire forest. And so with this disease. During times of adversity, the goodness in people is seen. Many rise to the occasion, jump in, to do the right things to help others. Then you see other people taking advantage of the situation for their own selfish interests.

Can we see evidence of people doing right and wrong actions? Is there such a thing as good and evil? Justice and injustice? Many think there isn’t... we should just do what seems right to us. And who are you to judge right and wrong, good and evil? Though over the centuries, millenniums of human history there were good things done, and there was also evil perpetrated on others. Justice? Injustices committed? Can we all agree that Hitler perpetrated evil and committed genocide when he murdered Jews, Christians and others?

Today is March 27, 2020, the 12th day of the Federal guidelines to slow down the spread of this disease, which began March 16, 2020.  We are still mostly staying home, and if we need to go out for a necessity it is brief. We avoid crowds and practice “Social Distancing” as best as possible. I stocked up on food and other necessities a while back. Both the Federal Government and the State of Oregon has asked people to stay home and many businesses deemed unnecessary are ordered to be closed. And schools are closed as well. So many parents find themselves home with their kids, getting restless and needing to get out. But now all the parks are closed, so where do you take the kids to run and play?

The Blessing of Hungering for Righteousness

Reading:
Matthew 5:6
Romans 3:21-25

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.” 

Matthew 5:6

As human beings we long for things to be right; in our own lives and in the world.  Most of time they are right, at least in some ways, and we manage to get through our lives with a semblance of feeling good or at least okay about the world. There are the really great times, like having good family and friends, moving into a new home or apartment and setting up your life. Maybe you’ve started a new job opportunity or a new business. Perhaps you started a new life getting married to the sweetheart of your dreams. And at some point your union you brought a new life into the world. You look into that little face and see hope and promise for this new little life. Then you have the satisfaction of seeing growth and good things come in your life; whether it is the success of your new job/business; or watching your children grow.

But then there are other times, when “the proverbial shoe drops” as they say; and life becomes extremely difficult. Perhaps your dream job/business or your marriage falls apart. Or one of your children has problems, a disability or gets into trouble of some kind. Or you go to the doctor only to hear a dreaded diagnosis... cancer or ? Maybe, or likely, it is more than just one of the things above. You realize that while there are a lot of things that are right in the world; there are also things that are just not right and you long for things to work out much better. Why is it that as much as we may want things to go well, there are times they just fall apart and disaster comes despite our best efforts?

Today, as I write this post, March 26, 2020, the entire world is in the midst of a worldwide pandemic... the Covid 19 Virus or as I call it, the “WuFlu”. My husband and I, our children have experienced pretty much all of the good things and difficulties above; the hopes and joys; as well as the stress, sorrow and setbacks. Yet in all our decades of life challenges, we have never experienced a world wide pandemic and quarantine. We have friends in their 90’s who have never experienced this. There is a lot of uncertainty and fear of what lies ahead. Will a family member or friend become gravely ill and we lose them? How long will it take to stop the spread of the disease? Will family members and/or friends lose their jobs? Their businesses? Will there even be an economy left in the wake of the disease? If the disease slows, will it come back in the fall? Will it last weeks, months or years? When will our free society return? Our economy return? When will life be back to normal again?