ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR THE THIRSTY
Matthew 5:6
Christ’s teaching on the Mount began
when He saw in the multitudes their need of the saving revelation of God
(Matthew 5:1; 9:36; Mark 6:34). Christ was moved with compassion on the people
He saw. Apparently, they lacked the strength, energy and sustaining grace to
live the Kingdom life and so He taught them. Jesus said, “Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall
inherit the earth.”
The fourth beatitude is, “Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled ” (Matthew 5:6). The judgement of God on earth and the fear of
eternal judgement make the inhabitants of the world to seek and desire
righteousness (Isaiah 26:9). Jesus reveals that we, as believers, can be filled
with righteousness. And this happens when we are passionate for it. It is
possible to be full of righteousness. It is possible to be full, to be filled
with (1) the fruits of righteousness (Philippians 1:11), (2) joy (Acts 13:52),
(3) goodness and knowledge (Romans 15:14), (4) desired physical blessings (Mark
7:27-30), (5) wisdom and spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9), (6) the Holy
Ghost (Acts 4:31), (7) the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:19). There is no limit
to the infilling and fulness of any true believer who is really thirsty for
God.
1. THE GREAT
PASSION OF THE THIRSTY
Matthew 5:6; Psalms 42:1,2; 63:1,8; 84:2; 143:4-6.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness….” 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, and into places where he can be
satisfied. “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?” (Psalm 42:1, 2). The spiritually
alive manifests a longing, a passion and a desire to possess the nature of God.
Like the hart, when your longing for the sustaining water of life is a
consuming one, you will leave everything you do to seek it and run after it.
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 important to you at that moment.
Why are many people so indifferent to spiritual things?
They are not thirsty and hungry for them because they are satisfied without the
river of life. Even when God wants to fill them with His righteousness, He does
not find them thirsty. How can they be made thirsty? It is by waking them from
spiritual deadness through salvation and restoration. The passion of the
thirsty is an
(i) individual desire, (ii) internal desire, (iii) intense
desire, (iv) increasing desire, (v) incomparable desire, (vi) interminable
desire, and (vii) instructive/influential desire.
2. GOD’S PROMISE TO
THE THIRSTY
Matthew 5:6; Isaiah 44:3; 41:17,18; 55:1-3; Psalms 37:3,4;
21:1,2; 145:16-18; Hebrews 10:22,23.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled ”. God is ready to fill us with
righteousness according to His promise. But He first identifies the believer to
find out how thirsty for righteousness he is before releasing the blessing. He
keeps what He has; He does not play with or waist precious resources of the
Kingdom on those that do not need them. God wants us to manifest thirst before
He pours righteousness upon 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 ” (Isaiah 44:3). He does not grant
righteousness, as an experience, to just anyone. He gives 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 fulfil them in our lives.
He has given His Son, Jesus Christ to atone for your sin
and make full provision for your righteousness. If you passionately desire His
righteousness, “…he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”
(Psalm 37:4). God imparts His nature of holiness to those who are alive in
Christ and thirst for it. And if we have not experienced the promised fulness
of righteousness, it is because we have failed to do our part of passionately
desiring it. If we desire and seek Him with faith He will fulfil His promise. “Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled.” He will fill us with His righteousness. When God makes
promises He fulfils them, when the conditions are met: “… for he
is faithful that promised ” (Hebrews 10:23).
3. GRACIOUS
PROVISION FOR THE THIRSTY
Matthew 5:6; 6:33; Psalms 48:9,10; 118:19-21; Isaiah
45:8,24; 46:12,13; 51:1,5,6; Hosea 10:12.
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 Old and New Testaments reveals a list of things God commands us
to seek after. But many Christians today do not seek the fulness God has
promised and provided for through the vicarious death of Christ. When you
examine yourself sincerely and compare the list of what you seek with what God
asks believers to seek after in His Word, you will discover a wide margin of
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 it is preoccupied with to seek
His righteousness. God has provided for our righteousness. Therefore, He issues
a command: “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Even in the
Old Testament, saints of God sought, desired and thirsted for God’s
righteousness and God answered their prayer. And if our desire is so intense,
and we seek the Lord in prayer, He will fill us with His righteousness. But if
symptoms of decay and death are visible in your life, repent of your sins. To
be filled with His righteousness, “break up your fallow ground: for it is
time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you”
(Hosea 10:12).
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