Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
12/30/2021
Hunger and Thirst – So you may be Satisfied.
As we close out the year. How hungry are you for more? How much of the loaf will satisfy your soul? Two words… hunger and thirst… for righteousness!
So where do you want to be? How far are you willing to take this, “Lord of Lord and King of Kings?” Are you looking for a slice of bread? Is that enough or is that just what you have grown used to? (Isn’t it amazing what we get used to?) Why?… Why would you settle for a lonely piece of bread? Have you ever wondered if that is why you are lonely for more of God? Why you just can’t seem to find the joy of his salvation overflowing in your life? Why you have this ache inside, this gnawing away at your inners and you just can’t seem to hold his holiness for any time? Could it be that you have settled for the slice of bread when he has offered the whole loaf?
Matthew 5:6 ESV – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”. Satisfied… What an elusive word that has been in my life, way too many times…over way too many years or decades! Satisfied? So how does that happen? Let’s read it again. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst… Will you be honest? When was the last time you were really hungry for God? What dire circumstance were you in that caused the desperation that ushered in a pang of hunger to hear God or should I say hear from God?
I believe there is a difference in be desperate for something and being desperate and hungry for the Lord of Lords. We seem to gravitate toward what God can give us to deliver us from something… an illness, a money crisis, cancer, a prodigal child or spouse but not truly a hunger for God for righteousness sake…for the sake of holiness. Is it because we never understood that truth of what we are speaking of today or we just couldn’t or wouldn’t be obedient to get to know him to such a level that we have become saturated with the knowledge of God…the goodness of God…the sovereignty of God? He offered all of us the entire loaf. The actual bread of life. Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and risen. When we come to the real truth of that…not a piece of bread, not a slice but when we come to the place to take in the entire loaf… then and only then comes a peace beyond description, beyond what we have ever known. With that comes a hunger and a thirst that become the very air we breathe.
Jesus Risen. , so we could be…Satisfied. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”.
Psalm 1:1-6 ESV 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. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous”
Can you see this happens when we hunger and thirst…for Him.
Deuteronomy 28:1-3 ESV “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city,
and blessed shall you be in the field.”
Obedience is the key. Know God. Devour his word. Let it not depart from you day or night. Hunger and thirst to such an extent that you will do anything for God. You will be obedient!
Psalm 127:3-5 ESV “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate”.
A woman said, I just love my children too much. I just couldn’t say no to them. No, if you love God first and most you can love others more and as much as you want!
Titus 2:1-15 ESV “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Where and how do we learn this. “As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee!” Do you remember the song? Hunger after him until you become one with him as he promised.
Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV / “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind”.
You can take a glass of water but leave the pitcher behind. The whole pitcher is there for each of us but you must listen to his words and you must obey and trust that it is all yours. But I can’t give up the sovereignty of my life. Control of my life. How can one do that? Until we are willing to die to our life we will never know his. We cannot do that in the natural. It will be the work of the Holy Spirit, he calls for you to surrender and he will take the wheel. No, when we surrender, we identify with him, and we get the heavens opening up… if we want what heaven wants and what heaven has, then we must hunger and thirst for righteousness’ sake. His righteousness is imputed to us, so that we will be satisfied with the power and the joy that overflows our capacity to hold it.
You decide whether this will be the year to hunger after God.
It’s a New Year…choose wisely.
David Phelps – He’s Alive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gGa1w_bnvM&list=RDl1Q2-sYAo-M&index=4
