January 15, 2002

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HUNGER
AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6, KJV).

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. "Their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17). The law of God is righteous, "all Thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:172). "The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.

"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, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat,... 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 shall be in him a well 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.