Daily Devotional For Thursday, August 22, 2024

Good morning my Southside family. Hope your week has been one in which you have been able to share Jesus with someone or at least talk to someone about their relationship to Christ. Today, is Trying Thursday, as some call it. Why? You’re almost to the Friday and the weekend. We are working our way through the most famous and best sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. It is found in Matthew 5, 6, & 7. Currently we are in what is called the “Beatitudes.” If you have been following these devotionals you have seen why they cannot be called the “Me-attitudes.” They are about being something for Jesus Christ.

Today, we pick up where we left off yesterday in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (NASB). Today we are going to look at several items: first, the object or goal of the Beatitudes; second, the results of when we are spiritually hungry and thirsty; and third, when our spiritual hunger and thirst are tested. So, let’s start with what is the goal of spiritual hunger and thirst?

The first goal of spiritual hunger and thirst is salvation. When a person hungers and thirsts for righteousness they do it first for salvation because they are repenting from their sin and surrendering their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is based on what we learned from the first three Beatitudes: an awareness of one’s sinfulness; second, a brokenness over one’s sinfulness, and third, humility – knowing that without Christ you have no hope and you submit his sinfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why in the fourth Beatitude, there is the moving of the Holy Spirit in a spiritually dead person to seek God’s righteousness – salvation. 

The Old Testament often uses righteousness to refer to salvation. Look at:

• Isaiah 51:5, “My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for Me, And for My arm they will wait expectantly” (NASB).
• Daniel 12:3, “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (NASB)

When a person abandons all hope of salvation through all other means, even his or her own righteousness or goodness, the hunger for God’s righteousness leads them to hunger for salvation and when that happens they are as Jesus said, “Blessed.” The main reason the Jews rejected Jesus was their infatuation with their own self-righteousness. They assumed that simply because they were God’s chosen people, they were promised not only The Promised Land, but heaven as well. Jesus, the real Messiah, told them that their only way to genuine salvation was seeking God’s righteousness instead of their own.

A second goal of spiritual hunger and thirst is sanctification. You want to grow in your relationship to Christ. As redeemed people, we never stop having a hunger and thirst for His righteousness that leads us to growth, godliness, holiness and obedience. This was Paul’s prayer for the church at Philippi in Philippians 1:9-10, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, (10) so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ” (NASB). 

The verb tense Jesus uses here for “hunger” and “thirst” refers to a continual hunger and thirst for righteousness that can only be ultimately satisfied in heaven when we are made perfect. Jesus also uses in Greek the definite article with righteousness, indicating that this is not just any righteousness from ourselves or any other source. It has to come from God. This means we cannot claim we are His if we do not have this on-going and continual hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. 

Jesus said the result of our spiritual hunger and thirst is satisfaction. The Greek New Testament word Jesus uses is [χορτάζω, chortazo]. This was the word used of feeding animals until they did not want any more. These animals could eat all they wanted until they were completely satisfied. It is a paradox here. The believer will hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, and He will satisfy us. How? As we pursue those disciplines that help us hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, they will satisfy us. God satisfying His people is a common theme in the Bible:

• Psalm 107:9, “For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good” (NASB).
• Psalm 34:10, “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing” (NASB).
• Psalm 23:1, 5, The Lord is my shepherd,I shall not want . . . (5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (NASB).
• Jeremiah 31:14, “I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the Lord” (NASB).
• John 4:14, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (NASB).
• John 6:35, “Jesus said to them, `I am the Bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’” (NASB).

There are times God allows a testing of our spiritual hunger and thirst. Why? Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” This means the first result is a person must have dissatisfaction with self. A person who is satisfied with their own righteousness sees no need for God’s righteousness and sees no need for God. A Puritan by the name of Thomas Watson wrote these words:

“He has most need of righteousness that least wants it.” No matter how rich his spiritual experience or how advanced his spiritual maturity, the hungering Christian will always say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24) – ” (Source: quoted in the The Banner of Truth, “Beatitudes,” p. 27).

This means the second result is a dissatisfaction in looking to external possessions or things for satisfaction.  A physically hungry or starving person cannot satisfy their hunger or starvation with cars, a house or digital devices or even music. There is nothing bad in these but they do not calm your stomach when it is growling for food. The same is true with spiritual hunger – only Jesus Christ’s righteousness can satisfy that. 

This means the third result is there must be a hunger and thirst for the Word of God. This is the basic food for spiritually hungry people. If you are starving, no one has to beg you or coax you to eat. You do it on your own. The prophet Jeremiah wrote this in Jeremiah 15:16a, “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart” (NASB). Jeremiah’s point is the more we eat from the Word of God, the more we want of it and the more it satisfies us. 

This means the fourth result is there is a desire to feed on God’s Word helps us deal with the unsavory in this world also. Just like some food is not satisfying to our pallet, there are some experiences that are unsavory to our spiritual pallet. Again, I quote Puritan Thomas Watson: ““The one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness can feed on the myrrh of the gospel as well as the honey.” Therefore, even when the Lord disciplines us, we are satisfied. This is the point of Hebrews 12:6, “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,  and chastises every son whom He receives” (ESV). 

This means the fifth result is that another authentic mark of spiritual hunger and thirst is that we do not make conditions to Jesus Christ. We willingly accommodate our lives to obey Him. We will seek and accept God’s will, purpose, and plan for our life no matter what it is. 

Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this:

“The spiritually hungry do not ask for Christ and economic success, Christ and personal satisfaction, Christ and popularity, or Christ and anything else. They want only Christ and what God in His wisdom and love sovereignly provides through Christ—whatever that may or may not be. The spiritually hungry cry, “My soul is crushed with longing after Thine ordinances at all times” (Ps. 119:20), and they confess, “At night my soul longs for Thee, indeed, my spirit within me seeks Thee diligently” (Isa. 26:9)” – (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 185).

New Testament scholar William Barclay writes this:

“So, then, the hunger which this beatitude describes is no genteel hunger which could be satisfied with a mid-morning snack; the thirst of which it speaks is no thirst which could be slaked with a cup of coffee or an iced drink. It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food, and the thirst of the man who will die unless he drinks” (Source: William Barclary, The Daily Study Bible Series, “Matthew, Vol. 1, pp. 99-100).

The hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness is a rejection of not only our own self-righteousness, but an admission we are sinners capable of anything apart from Christ. Former Watergate politician and now a redeemed disciple of Jesus gives this amazing illustration of this below:

“He tells of watching a segment of television’s 60 Minutes in which host Mike Wallace interviewed Auschwitz survivor Yehiel Dinur, a principal witness at the Nuremberg war-crime trials. During the interview, a film clip from Adolf Eichmann’s 1961 trial was viewed that showed Dinur entering the courtroom and coming face to face with Eichmann for the first time since being sent to Auschwitz almost twenty years earlier. Stopped cold, Dinur began to sob uncontrollably and then fainted while the presiding judge pounded his gavel for order.

“Was Dinur overcome by hatred? Fear? Horrid memories?” asks Colson, who then answers. No; it was none of these. Rather, as Dinur explained to Wallace, all at once he realized Eichmann was not the godlike army officer who had sent so many to their deaths. This Eichmann was an ordinary man. “I was afraid about myself,” said Dinur. “I saw that I am capable to do this. I am … exactly like he.”

Wallace’s subsequent summation of Dinur’s terrible discovery—“Eichmann is in all of us”—is a horrifying statement; but it indeed captures the central truth about man’s nature. For as a result of the Fall, sin is in each of us—not just the susceptibility to sin, but sin itself.1

Colson follows his penetrating observation with this question: Why is it that today sin is so seldom written or preached about? The answer is in Dinur’s dramatic collapse, for to truly confront the sin within us is a devastating experience. If pastors preached on sin, says Colson, many people would flee their church pews never to return” (Source: Charles Colson, Who Speaks For God?, p. 137).

The truth ever since the Fall is we have been in need of God’s righteousness whether we recognize it or not. Dieticians and nutritionists tell us we are what we eat and drink. New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton has rewritten the Beatitudes from their polar opposite. For this 4th Beatitude, he writes its opposite this way: “Wretched are those who ceaselessly justify themselves, for their efforts will be in vain” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, p. 76). He goes on to say that when we have a hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, at three three forms will be visible in our hunger and thirst:

1. “The desire to be righteous–to be forgiven and accepted by God; to be right with God.
2. The desire to do what is right—to do what God commands; imitating and reflecting God’s righteousness.
3. The desire to see right done—to help bring about God’s will in the world” (Source: Ibid., p. 78).

Questions To Consider

1. Is your hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness the most driving desires in your life? Why or why not?
2. In your prayers, do you ask God for His righteousness in your life or mostly other things that are an attempt to fill the void that self-righteousness creates? Why or why not?
3. You were given 5 results of having a hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. Which of these are exemplified in your life?
4. In the story Chuck Colson shared about former Auschwitz survivor Yehiel Dinur, this man had a shocking discovery at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial seeing the man responsible for his imprisonment in that concentration camp. What does this tell you about your own self-righteousness versus God’s righteousness?
5. Read the 3 forms that Bruce B Barton gave that should be visible in our own hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness.Which of these do you personally struggle with and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: John 6:27, “Jesus said, `Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal’” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I want to have this intense starvation, hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. Please forgive me when I live as if my self-righteousness is good enough. Please help me learn from Auschwitz survivor Yehiel Dinur. Without Your righteousness, I am capable of anything. Please create a hunger and thirst for Your righteousness so that I honor You and bring glory to You with my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly