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?

 

 

My empty platter

When I was a child, I had an illness that was life-threatening. The doctors told my parents that I would die before my 16^th birthday. Because of that, I was sheltered and not given much instruction on how to live.

Years after proving the doctors wrong, I felt like I was missing out. I didn’t know how to deal with many issues of life and was unprepared for things that happened in school and after school. Constantly feeling like I was flying by the seat of my pants was at first ‘normal’ but after a while I realized that for me, this was a deeper issue than it was for my siblings and others. I continually felt as if I had nothing to offer.

During a class at Bible school, when I was already a grandmother, this verse made an impact on my life. I suddenly became aware that the way I felt was not as bad as it seemed. In fact, it was good preparation for a life of following Jesus Christ . . .

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us. (Psalm 123:2)

As Chambers says, this verse is a description of entire reliance upon God. I’d felt like a servant with an empty platter, but realized all God wanted from me was to wait for Him to fill it, then deliver what He put on it to others. What a relief!

Of course that emptiness was partly due to being a spoiled child. My parents thought I would die young and over-compensated by indulgence. After I became a Christian at age 29, I thought God would do the same. Feeling empty was not a good motivation for telling God what to give me. I also needed to realize that God was always the One to decide what I should do. He knew what I needed to fill my sense of uselessness. I only thought I knew what I needed.

I learned the hard way that the human spirit has this “I will do it myself” attitude that God calls sin. Feeling empty didn’t fix that; it only made me try harder, at least for awhile. At the same time, God gave me a desire to serve Him and do it according to His way, not my way. These also have been difficult lessons.

In the final analysis, God says I must keep my eyes on Him — like the servant looks to his Master — and when He fills my empty platter, that is a mercy; I do not deserve nor can I earn even the least of His blessings.