Friday, September 13, 2024
The Keys to happiness Hunger and thirst for righteousness
The Keys to happiness
Blessed-or happy-are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.' They are the only truly happy people. Now the whole world is seeking for happiness; there is no question about that. Everybody wants to be happy. That is the great motive behind every act and ambition, behind all work and all striving and effort. Everything is designed for happiness. But the great tragedy of the world is that, though it gives itself to seek for happiness, it never seems to be able to find it. The present state of the world reminds us of that very forcibly. We are not to hunger and thirst after blessedness; we are not to hunger and thirst after happiness. But that is what most people are doing. We put happiness and blessedness as the one thing that we desire, and thus we always miss it; it always eludes us. According to the Scriptures happiness is never something that should be sought directly; it is always something that results from seeking something else. The world is seeking for happiness. That is the meaning of its pleasure mania, that is the meaning of everything men and women do, not only in their work but still more in their pleasures. They are trying to find happiness, they are making it their goal, their one objective. But they do not find it because, whenever you put happiness before righteousness, you will be doomed to misery.
This is equally true, however, of many within the Church. There are large numbers of people in the Christian Church who seem to spend the whole of their life seeking something which they can never find, seeking for some kind of happiness and blessedness. They go round from meeting to meeting, and convention to convention, always hoping they are going to get this wonderful thing, this experience that is going to fill them with joy, and flood them with some ecstasy.
the desire for righteousness, the act of hungering and thirsting for it, means ultimately the desire to be free from sin in all its forms and in its every manifestation.
It means a desire to be free from sin, because sin separates us from God. Therefore, positively, it means a desire to be right with God; and that, after all, is the fundamental thing. All the trouble in the world today is due to the fact that man is not right with God, for it is because he is not right with God that he has gone wrong everywhere else. That is the teaching of the Bible everywhere. So the desire for righteousness is a desire to be right with God, a desire to get rid of sin, because sin is that which comes between us and God, keeping us from a knowledge of God, and all that is possible to us and for us with God and from God. So I must put that first. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the man who sees that sin and rebellion have separated him from the face of God, and longs to get back into that old relationship, the original relationship of righteousness in the presence of God.
The Diet Plan That Is Sure To Succeed
Matthew 5:18-20: For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:26 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Seek Jesus Preeminently
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Seek Jesus Preeminently
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt 6:33
Psalm 42:1-2 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Seek Jesus Passionately
John 4:13,14 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Seek Him Deliberately
John 7: 37 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.38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
Seek Him Determinedly
Jeremiah 29: 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Isaiah 55: 6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD,
Seek Him Desperately "hunger and thirst after righteousness."
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always: Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Seek Jesus Perpetually
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always: Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Seek Jesus Perpetually
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
When you've got a healthy spiritual appetite, you have this desire, this hunger, and this thirst that every thought you think is pure. Every word you say is laced with grace. You want to be everything that God wants you to be and do everything that God wants you to do, the way God wants you to do it, and you do not want to fall one inch or one pound light of God's very best for you. You just have this hunger and thirst that in every situation you live right, that you are right, and you do right regardless of the cost. In other words, you're not famished for happiness; you're famished for holiness.
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6)
We Will be Fulfilled With Righteousness One thing you can count on when you hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness is that you won't go away hungry and you won't go away thirsty. Jesus says plainly, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). When you hunger for God, God will fill you.
1 Peter 2: 1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation---3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
This thing of being satisfied is not a once-for-all thing any more than eating a meal is a once-for-all thing. You see, you have a continual hunger, not because that food didn't satisfy you;; you have a continual hunger because that food did satisfy you. And, your appetite is increased because of the goodness of the food, and the satisfaction that it brought once—it continues to bring day after day.
This thing of being satisfied is not a once-for-all thing any more than eating a meal is a once-for-all thing. You see, you have a continual hunger, not because that food didn't satisfy you;; you have a continual hunger because that food did satisfy you. And, your appetite is increased because of the goodness of the food, and the satisfaction that it brought once—it continues to bring day after day.
"…the 'rivers of living water' mentioned by Jesus represent by contrast an inexhaustible supply of the Spirit that flows from him to the believer in constant renewal and refreshing. Normal Christian living is a life continually sustained by the Spirit." ~ Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003)
# posted by Groseys messages @ 6:20 PM 
