When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after
He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach
them, saying…Matthew 5:1-2
The eight sermons from the Beatitudes
display the development of Christian character as each beatitude leads to the
next. The logical flow of these
teachings should display the journey we make to become disciples of Christ in
the way we live our lives. Yesterday’s Beatitude was Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Today’s is:
Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:6
What is the hungriest you have ever been? When were you thirsty to the point you
thought you were going keel over before you got something to drink? And when
you did finally get that drink of cool water or that bite of something how
satisfying was it? Nothing tastes better
than when you want it so bad that it consumes your whole being. But if we fill ourselves with junk food and
coke, that satisfaction is short lived and soon we will be back in the kitchen
looking for something else. When we are
in the dry desert, the best drink for our bodies is water and when our heart is
dry and our soul is starving, nothing satisfies except Jesus. We may stop at many streams along the way
trying to fill up with what always appears as cool, clear water, only to get
nothing but dust when we try to satisfy ourselves. We are promised a never-ending satisfaction
from Jesus. He is the only true
satisfaction for a soul who hungers and thirsts for living water, life changing
sustenance.
God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing for Him. In trying to satisfy our spiritual
hungers we consume large quantities of physical things. Satisfaction only comes when we seek it from
the right source. It is like a
puzzle. Only the right piece will solve
the puzzle and only righteousness from God is the perfect fit to fill the void
of dissatisfaction in our hearts. We try
to satisfy it with greater financial position, being more popular, going new
places, sex, sports, mind altering substances, getting more things, etc. But
the longing remains and chasing after these empty replacements only take us
further away from true satisfaction. None
of these substitutions will ever satisfy.
Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ can truly satisfy.
Scripture
to Claim:
And the Lord will guide
you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones
strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose
waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11
