What is on the menu?

 

Last night we had dinner with our son and his fiancée. Hubby and I shared an order and we were satisfied after eating it. Today’s verse is: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) I’m thinking it is easy to overeat, but I can never do that with Jesus. He is enough and yet that hunger for Him is much like He is — endless. As the psalmist said, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:2) And Jesus responds:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” (John 7:37–38)

While bread and water, meat and potatoes, salad and vegetables, are all needed for good physical health, the righteousness of God is the way to not only have enough food, but the way to be totally satisfied. Jesus made a promise about daily needs: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) The OT writer says, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25) also tying righteousness to daily bread, but this is more than bread. It is about satisfaction of soul, about contentment of heart.

The NT urges righteousness to be pursued because it is vital. “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22) Even with a pure heart, there is an empty place, a longing for perfection, for love, for unending happiness, or an unnamed something that eludes the human soul. However, those who turn to Jesus with this thirst for whatever it is find out that only Christ can satisfy our deepest needs. He said:

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)

The prodigal thought having his inheritance and doing his own thing would work, but sinful pleasure made the hole in his heart grow bigger. The rich farmer thought if he could tear down his barns and build larger ones to store all his grain and goods would make it possible to take his ease, “eat, drink and be merry” but that didn’t work either. Those who lay up treasure for themselves and are not “rich toward God” eventually lose everything.

Pursuing righteousness involves poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, and meekness. The rewards are great even though the process is often painful at first. However, ignoring Jesus and trying to fill that void with temporal goals and pleasures deepens the hunger and adds to spiritual blindness. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

Lord Jesus, this makes me think of today’s deepest needs. What do I hunger for? I have challenges that seem impossible so my empty spot is about wisdom, strength, creativity, all things found in You. I cannot fill the demands on my life without You and the leading that You give. Your answers to my prayers may be unexpected surprises, but that is fine with me. I’m running to You to fill my need for righteousness, not only the rightness of being morally acceptable to You, but the rightness of recognizing my tendency to fill that empty space with all my ‘good’ ideas. Instead, I want Your wisdom and Your power, Your thoughts to govern all choices throughout this day and every day. Quickly reveal self-centered errors and open my eyes to Your gracious rightness in all things. Satisfy both my hunger and thirst, I pray.

Read Luke 18:9-14. How was the Pharisee trying to fill the empty place in his heart? What did the tax collector do? How does this apply to the idea of having a hunger and thirst for righteousness? What satisfaction did these men experience?

 

 

Do You Know the Way?

 

This week a friend needed help with her computer. She’d recently moved so I put her new address into the GPS on my phone. The route seemed easy and straight-forward, but like life, it took me through heavy traffic, along some very narrow roads and an incredible amount of construction. While the journey took only twenty minutes, the WAY turned into a bit of adventure.

Following the way of Jesus is the same; at times easy, straight-forward and an adventure, and at times winding, narrow, with overwhelming stuff happening and certainly lots of construction and reconstruction.

In the OT, the word way is from the Hebrew word “derek” used figuratively to denote the course of a person’s life, often in connection with moral action and character and usually associated with the plan of God for how His people must live. This was first given to Abraham, then repeated to Moses:

Genesis 18:19. “For I have chosen (Abraham), that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Exodus 18:20. “And you (Moses) shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.”

The way of the Lord is synonymous with who God is, His nature and character, even though this term is used as a metaphor for covenant obedience as in these words to Joshua:

Joshua 1:8. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

God’s way is filled with blessing but there are other ways described in Scripture. Of them, the OT says:

Proverbs 14:12. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Psalm 1:1–2; 6. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night . . . for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

For this reason, I need to carefully consider who I listen to, associate and align myself with, and what I think about lest I stroll down a path that is not only a waste of life but could lead to destruction.

In the NT, this term is also literal in the sense of a journey, but figurative as it focuses on the course selected for life. Jesus talks about that with this instruction:

Matthew 7:13–14. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The most exceptional description of the way identifies it with the Person of Jesus Christ. He says that He not only shows the way, He actually is that way:

John 14:6. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I’m thinking again of that squiggly red line on my GPS showing the way to my friend’s house. That is how to get there and Jesus is how to get to the Father, how to have a relationship with Almighty God and experience eternal life with Him. Jesus is God the Son and also the way that makes it possible for sinful humans to cross the abyss of sin that separates us from Him . . . Jesus is the bridge across, the way, the route. He laid down His life so I could be forgiven and He shows me the way of life God intends it to be lived. The GPS  may show other routes and many people have other ideas, but Jesus makes it clear that He is the only way to the Father.

Other metaphors are used that amplify the idea of the way being a journey, a path, a manner of life, yet they are all summed up in Jesus. He is that way, my source of all that is needed to travel the route intended. My GPS is like Scripture, and the Holy Spirit is like the vehicle that carries me, and Jesus is like the line on the map, the route defined, the One who opened the way to me, who directs every step, not only guiding my feet but granting me peace as I go. I know I’m on the right track. He is the way of truth, of righteousness, and the only way of salvation and the only way of walking in newness of life and in love toward Him and toward others.