WE are often so preoccupied with our own problems that we do not have time to consider what others are experiencing. It was not so with our Lord Jesus Christ whose teaching on the Mount began when He saw in the crowd that gathered around Him, a need for spiritual direction, a desire to be aligned with the Almighty God. Merely looking at them, he was moved with compassion. They could not help themselves. They lacked the strength, energy and sustaining grace to live as God prescribes, hence, He opted to teach and guide them on the path to take. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,” He declared to them, “for they shall be filled.” He knew that the judgment of God on the earth and the fear of eternal damnation in hell are enough reasons to make men desire righteousness. Those who sincerely seek this new life, will sooner or later be satisfied, and be filled with the fruits of righteousness, namely, joy, goodness and knowledge, desired physical blessings, wisdom and spiritual understanding, the power of the Holy Ghost, and the fullness of God. There is no limit to the infilling and fullness of any true believer who is thirsty for God.
Hunger and thirst, in the natural, are indicative desires that show you are alive and not dead. Though you might not be saturated yet, but when you hunger and thirst after righteousness, it shows that you are spiritually alive. True spiritual yearning and thirst for God’s righteousness moves the believer into the action of prayer, for “as the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” The spiritually alive manifests a longing, a passion and a desire for righteousness. Physical thirst has the power to redirect your thoughts, imagination and feelings and get them focused on the possible solution. Then, you passionately seek to satisfy that quest. So also is hunger for righteousness. When the thirst or hunger for righteousness is in you, material things, friends, people, opportunities and privileges will not be more important to you at that moment. Many people are so indifferent to spiritual things because they are not thirsty and hungry for them; they are satisfied without their present state. Even when God wants to fill them with His righteousness, He does not find any desire in them. But when they are awakened from spiritual deadness, when they surrender their lives to Jesus Christ and become saved, suddenly their need, thirst, desire for God is aroused. Such a passion of thirst in them is an individual, internal and intense desire. Similarly, it is an increasing, incomparable, interminable, instructive or influential desire.
God is ready to fill all desirable people with His righteousness, according to His promise. But He first tests them to find out how thirsty they are before releasing the blessing. He does not waste precious resources of the Kingdom on those that do not need them. God wants us to manifest thirst before He pours righteousness upon or into us. “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring,” He says. He does not grant righteousness, as an experience, to just anyone. He gives it to those who manifest and reveal their heart-hunger and earnestness for it. The only thing that satisfies a child of God is righteousness. There is something deadly wrong with a Christian who is not thirsty after the righteousness of God. God’s promises to fill the thirsty with righteousness are great. But we must thirst and respond to His call so He can fulfill them in our lives. For one, He has given humankind His Son, Jesus Christ to atone for our sin and make full provision for our righteousness. If you passionately desire His righteousness, “…he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” God imparts His nature of holiness to those who are alive in Christ and thirst for it. And if you have not experienced the promised fullness of righteousness, it is because you have failed to do your part of passionately desiring it. If you desire and seek Him with faith He will fulfill His promise. When God makes promises He fulfills them, if the conditions are met, “for he is faithful that promised.”
Righteousness is not a product of human endeavour, trial, struggle or work. It is a provision of the grace of God. A study of the word “seek” in both the Old and New Testaments reveals a list of things God commands us to seek after. But many Christians today do not seek the fullness God provided for through the vicarious death of Jesus Christ. When you examine yourself sincerely and compare the list of what you seek with what God asks Christians to seek after in His Word, you will discover a yawning disparity. The same applies to Christian assemblies whose posters and handbills display their passion and emphasis and what they call people to seek. But if the church is going to please God and remain at the centre of His will, it must abandon all the temporary but legitimate things, and begin to seek His righteousness. God has provided for that righteousness for all. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Today, if your desire is so intense, and you seek the Lord in prayer, He will fill you with His righteousness.
REFERENCES: Matthew 5:6; Psalms 42:1,2; 63:1,8; 84:2; 143:4-6; Psalm 42:1, 2; Isaiah 44:3; 41:17,18; 55:1-3; Psalms 37:3,4; 21:1,2; 145:16-18; Hebrews 10:22,23; Isaiah 44:3; Psalm 37:4; Hebrews 10:23; Psalms 48:9,10; 118:19-21; Isaiah 45:8,24; 46:12,13; 51:1,5,6; Hosea 10:12 and Matthew 6:33. (All scriptures are from the KJV).
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