How's Your Spiritual Appetite?

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matt. 5:6).

David was a man after God's own heart. In Psalm 63:1 he writes, "O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; my soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." He communed with God and knew the blessings of His sufficiency: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness. . . . Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me" (Ps. 23:1-4). He endured unjust persecution for the Lord's sake: "Zeal for Thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me" (Ps. 69:9).

David's zeal for God illustrates what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matt. 5:6). The words translated "hunger" and "thirst" speak of intense desire. They are present participles, which imply continuous action. The idea is paradoxical: the believer's continuous and intense desire for righteousness is continually satisfied by Christ.

J.N. Darby, an early leader of the Plymouth Brethren movement, said, "To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in [God's] heart towards me. When the prodigal son was hungry he went to feed upon husks, but when he was starving, he turned to his father" (quoted in Martyn Lloyd-Jones's Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, vol. 1, p. 81). When you have that kind of desperation, only God can satisfy it!

Does your desire for righteousness drive you to Christ for satisfaction? I pray that the words of the psalmist will be yours as well: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Ps. 17:15, KJV).

Ask God to use the events of today to increase your hunger and thirst for righteousness. Look to Him in all things, knowing that He alone can satisfy.

What does it mean to place confidence in the flesh? How did Paul define true righteousness?

Here you go. Sudden calamity comes upon man and they don't expect it. Also, a man who is not supposed to know how to save the city, saves the city. Perhaps someone of humble position could tell us how to avoid lots of deaths AND keep from ruining our economy. However, the big wigs all have agendas to pursue so truth doesn't matter to them. How does this relate to current events?

Ecclesiastes 9:12 Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.
Ecclesiastes 9:13 Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me.
Ecclesiastes 9:14 There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and constructed large siegeworks against it.
Ecclesiastes 9:15 But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
Ecclesiastes 9:16 So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength."But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded.

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