April
8, 2003
BLESSED
ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER
AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
"Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6, NKJV).
Righteousness
is doing what is right. The Lord told Cain, "If you do
what is right, will you not be accepted?" (Genesis 4:7).
Righteousness is of God. "'And their righteousness is
from Me.' Says the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17). The law of God
contains His values and they are values of doing what is right
and avoiding what is wrong and what gets us into trouble.
"All Your commandments are righteousness. Let Your hand
become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts" (Psalm
119:172, 173). "The values of God are embodied in Christ.
We receive God's values of righteousness by receiving His
Son. Apart from God, our righteousness is "like filthy
rags" (Isaiah 64:6).
"Not
by painful struggles or wearisome toil,-- is righteousness
obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers
and thirsts to receive 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'
(Isaiah 55:1)...
"As
we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need
Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and
impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually
receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so
the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting
to Him and depending wholly upon Him. As the weary traveler
seeks the spring in the desert and, finding it, quenches his
burning thirst, so will the Christian thirst for and obtain
the pure water of life, of which Christ is the fountain...
"Jesus
said, 'The water that I shall give him
will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting
life' (John 4:14)... To Jesus, who emptied Himself
for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given
without measure. So it will be given to every follower of
Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling"--Thoughts
From the Mount of Blessing, pp., 18-21.
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