Hunger for Righteousness

Matthew 5:6 (NKJV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

Today there are many things on the market that say they are food but they are so filled with preservatives and other things that while it is listed as food it has very little “food” in it or what food is left it has no nutrition. Yet people are satisfied with it because it “tastes” good and looks good when in fact it has no nutritional value. This kind of food leads to sickness and even death but people still eat it. There is a whole industry built around it. Real food will cost more and it takes more to use it and prepare it but it brings health and provides nutrition that causes growth. Once you begin to understand its value and realize that fast foods and processed foods are not healthy you, you hunger for what is real. The same is true of true righteousness that flows from God and is worked out in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness can be the same way. There is a lot out there that is seen and called righteousness but there is nothing in it that causes growth. It is preserved by ego and being content with how things look on the outside rather than spiritual health. We are told by Jesus that we are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?
We might want to start by what it is not. There are those that are concerned about having righteousness around them. They, like the Pharisee’s are very concerned when someone that looks like a sinner or in their opinion is doing sinful things come near them. It might even be someone that is, in fact, a full blown sinner and there is no doubt as to the fact that they are “unclean.” They don’t want people or things that they don’t like in their near proximity. They want only “righteousness” around them. They grab up their things and avoid these people at all costs. They look at them with suspicion and even fear if they look at them at all.
Too often we only want to have righteousness around us because then we feel comfortable. That way there is nothing out of the ordinary. Everything “looks” good…including us. We also don’t have to do anything or say anything and at the same time we can be quick to point out and condemn anything we don't like or makes us uncomfortable. We do not want to be confronted by things we don’t like or things we don’t approve of. Having everything around us appear to be righteous will also give the illusion that we, ourselves are righteous so we can hide our secret sin. There are times when I can hide my judgmental spirit behind a desire for righteousness. But hungering and thirsting for righteousness is not about what is in others or how things appear but it means that you want it for yourself.
To hunger and thirst after righteousness means to have a starving, thirsty spirit in your own heart. It is a real hunger and starvation of soul. It means that your spirit longs for the righteousness of God to be worked out in your own life. But there is something more about it that needs to be understood. The hunger is for all righteousness. This hunger wants righteousness in every way and doesn’t pick and choose what it wants. It does not deem some righteousness palatable and other righteousness, well questionable. This hunger is not like the person that feels a little hungry and goes to the refrigerator and stands there, looking at all the food and then closes the door and says, “There is nothing in here to eat.” No this type of hunger means that it is a craving for righteousness. It wants to eat the whole thing. It is not satisfied with righteousness in tidbits. It does not pick and choose what righteousness it wants. It is not satisfied with things that look like righteousness but are not. It wants true righteousness.
In the Bible “righteousness” means two simple but profound things; it has a double meaning. It means to be right and to do right. It may be said another way: to be good and to do good. We cannot be good without doing good but doing good without being good has no value.
How then can a man become perfectly righteous? The answer is what Christ says: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” What happens is this. God takes a person’s “hunger and thirst after righteousness” and counts it as righteousness. The person is not righteous, but God counts him righteous. This is the great love of God. A man hungers and thirsts after righteousness; therefore, God fills him. Now one might argue that they do want righteousness but they point more to the unrighteousness of others rather than seeking true righteousness in their own lives. They are like Simon the Pharisee that thought less of Jesus because Jesus allowed a woman to touch Him. Not just any woman but one that Simon judged a sinner by her appearance. He may have even knew her by her reputation but he could not see any way that she could ever be fit for God. Jesus, on the other hand was more concerned about the heart rather than the outward appearance. On the outside Simon looked righteous and the woman a sinner but to Jesus the woman‘s heart was seen, not by her outward appearance but how she showed her love to Jesus. The same was true of Simon. His heart was shown by his lack of giving to Jesus even the common courtesy given to strangers. The woman came in faith that Jesus would forgive her and Simon lacked faith and did not see his own need of Jesus in any way. The Bible uses the word faith to explain righteousness. Faith is believing God and trusting Him to take our faith and count it as righteousness. Hebrews 11:6 says it clearly: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” That faith will result in a righteousness that begins to take place in every part of our life without our working at it. It will just happen.
Righteousness, the kind we must hunger for, involves the mind. Scripture says it involves being “renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephes. 4:23), and being “renewed in knowledge” (Col. 3:10).This means that the person who seeks after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” He “puts on the new man” and is “renewed in the spirit of [his] mind” (Ephes. 4:23). It means that the person who seeks after God has “put off the old man with his deeds; and [has] put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:9-10).
The Pharisees did not seek after God’s righteousness they sought after their own. They were more concerned about the outside than the inside. They thought that pleased God when in fact they only pleased themselves. But Jesus said that our righteousness was to exceed theirs! Jesus called them whitewashed sepulchers, filled with dead men’s bones. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28) The Pharisee’s and the hypocrite disguise inner decay with an outward show of righteousness. They are very careful how they look on the outside but on the inside they have all the corruption of the sin that they hold on to. How does this apply to us? Let's consider a few things:
On the outside – we are still going to church...making a sure we can say point to our church attendance as a proof of our righteousness
On the inside we are still living to ourselves during the week.
On the outside - we may profess to be a Christian
On the inside -We are still living and thinking like an unbeliever.
On the outside -we may give thanks as a family at meals,
On the inside we are ungrateful and covetous of what others have. We are unsatisfied with the blessings God has already given us.
On the outside - we may agree with justice and mercy,
On the inside we are unforgiving and judgmental towards others in the church
On the outside we quote the word of God and say we believe it
On the inside we refuse to obey it, question it and don’t really live it.
On the outside we may walk humbly before our peers,
On the inside we are full of pride, criticism and self righteousness.
On the outside we are very generous and giving, towards God and others
On the inside we see it as a proof of our righteousness. We don’t give as an act or worship but as a proof of righteousness.
We often forget that even though Jesus spoke against the outward sins that people see as so terrible but He spoke just as strongly the inward sins of the spirit such as pride and greed, a judgmental heart or despising others because they don’t meet OUR standards of righteousness. Jesus spoke most harshly against those that trusted in their own righteousness and so easily judged others and brought them into condemnation. Instead of drawing them to God they force them away with blame and disapproval. The disapproval is theirs, not God’s. It is interesting that Jesus, who was perfect in His righteousness, was compassionate and caring. He did not wink at sin and did not ignore it, He simply told those that were bound to walk in freedom. That freedom, as well as righteousness, is found in trusting Jesus. To trust in our own righteousness is to not trust in His.

Spiritual Warfare - Where does it really take place?

Ephesians 6:12 tells us that warfare takes place in “high places” and that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephes. 6:12 NKJV

In our own lives there is often a struggle Paul describes them in Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would.” Each of us has a battle going on in our life that we may be attempting to fight on a human level. Consider the idea it could be (and probably is) a spiritual battle. Open up any new possibilities to handle it?

In the book of Daniel, Chapter 10, Daniel seeks to understand what is going to happen to Israel. He recognizes that time has gone by and that there are new things in store for Israel and has asked God for that understanding. In the first part of the chapter Daniel is in prayer and is fasting. He is seeking the Lord concerning issues he is concerned about. He asked for understanding. An angel appears to him and speaks to him. In verse 12 we find out that his prayers were answered the first day. Yet we see that it was three weeks before this angel had shown up. The angel said that Prince of Persia had withstood. You can understand from the context that this was no mere man but a ruler of darkness who must have had great authority over the things in Persia. Intervention by one described by the angel as “Michael, one of the chief princes,” had enabled him to get through.

Daniel had sought the Lord on the future of Israel. God had sent an angel to come immediately to answer him. Demonic forces held him back until Michael finally came and did battle. Michael, the one we know as the arch angel seems to have the second in command under Jesus. We have only a hazy picture of a country so filled with idolatry and wickedness and such a stronghold of satanic forces that the angel couldn't get through.

Using our weapons and knowing our forces

Are we powerless against the enemy? No! Notice what Daniel did. He used the weapons of warfare. First he used prayer. He sought God. He made his request know before the throne. This was something he could not get an answer for any other way. To the prayer he added fasting. He humbled himself before the Lord. Fasting (in the spiritual sense) is voluntarily giving up food to spend time with God. If you are just giving up food and not spending time in prayer and communication with God you will find little accomplished other than being hungry and maybe losing some weight. Humbling yourself before the Lord speaks of surrender of your wants, desires and your will to God. Although the battle is fought in the heavens what we do on earth is important. Notice what Daniel did not do. First, he did not stop praying. Often people get weary of waiting and stop praying and fasting (if they ever started). There are some folks who believe you only have to pray once and then just believe that you will get what you prayed for. Because of this idea they stop praying and never even think of fasting. I have no problem with believing for something and expecting an answer from God for something. But I do have a problem with those who stop talking to God about it and are no longer seeking His heart concerning the issue. Sometimes folks have bought into the false doctrine that God owes you and so they no longer look to God. They have “said it,” “they believe” it and so that is they end of it. It is as if they have given God a command and He must respond to it. Not only is this arrogance but totally unscriptural

Knowing your forces

In Spiritual warfare it is important to know you forces. Too often we try to depend on our own strength and resources to battle sin and satanic forces that seek to rule and control our lives. There are those that would have us believe that we can seek out the enemy and his devices and that we can destroy them. When we fail we can become discouraged. We begin to think the problem is too big or that the forces of the enemy are greater than anything we have. This is true if we try to accomplish the battle on our own. But we must realize that there are the forces of God, all around us, to protect us, to hold back the enemy and ultimately to subdue the enemy. We have a beautiful picture of this in 2 Kings 6:15-17 In this area of scripture our main character is Elisha. It is a bad time in Elisha’s life. It seems that the king of Syria is planning on invading Israel and Elisha keeps giving away his plans to the king of Israel. Now the king of Syria wants to know which one of his people is a traitor and he finds out that in fact there is no traitor but Elisha is giving away their secrets. The king wants him in custody, most likely to either kill him or at the very least keep him from passing on information to Israel. In the morning the whole city of Dothan is surrounded with Syrian troops and chariots. The servant of Elisha draws attention to the physical enemy. Elisha sees his fear and tells him not to worry that there are more with them than there was of their enemy. Now we have to hit the pause button here and consider what the servant might be thinking as he looked around. Okay Elisha, there are a few prophets and maybe some towns people but I don’t think we have more than they do. The math is just not adding up. This is where Elisha says, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. No fear, our forces greater.

Do you see your forces as greater? The bible says greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4) That alone says we have the greater advantage. There are angels all around. Jacob in Genesis 28:12 had a dream where he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. He also saw the angels of God ascending and descending on it. It is here that God speaks to him and restates the promises he gave to Abraham. But the picture we see is that there is constant activity between heaven and earth. There angels constantly going and coming to the aid of the people of God. And there is only need one angel.

In another Old Testament situation Assyria had Jerusalem in siege. The chief of staff for the king of Assyria had come with a letter, not only to threaten Hezekiah, but to try and shake the faith in God's ability to deliver them. Isaiah tells us that over five thousand of the enemy was killed in one night by one angel (Isaiah 37:36)

When Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to worship Nebuchadnezzer’s golden idol they were thrown into a fiery furnace (Daniel 3). An angel came to their rescue. Their ropes were removed and they moved about freely- but they were still in the furnace! Sometimes we are not delivered from the situation itself, only the results. When Daniel himself was thrown into a lions den for continuing to pray to God after a royal decree had been made than made it an offence punishable by death, an angel came to his rescue. (Dan 6). The angel shut the lions' mouths through the night so they did not hurt him. When those who had accused Daniel were thrown into the pit they were immediately eaten. (So it wasn’t like the lions were not hungry.)

Finally, one of my favorite stories is from Acts 12. It seems Peter is in prison. He doesn’t seem to be too worried because he is asleep. His sleep is so deep that the angel who wakes him has to punch him in the side. (Acts 12:7-11)

Too often we take the forces around us that we can see, too seriously and the forces we cannot see too much for granted unless they are from the satanic realm and are manifested in the physical realm. The main strategy is to trust in God. Trusting him, that he is in control and that as needed he will send his angels to minister to our needs and situations. Instead of looking to ourselves, to other flesh and blood or worldly answers for our problems, to overcome our sins or the enemy of our souls, we need to look to God. He is our Rock, our Fortress and our Deliverer.

Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. Psalm 63:7 (NKJV)

I will lift up my eyes to the hills-- from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 (NKJV)

Walk of Trust

Psalm 37:1-3 A Psalm of David. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

Psalm 37 is a psalm written by David. In his life time he saw evil men seemingly prosper. He saw Saul continue as king when those around Saul could see that he was wrong. He saw the likes of Nabal, "the fool" prosper while he and his men went hungry. David saw the Philistines prosper yet they served false gods. Here in this psalm he begins with and an admonition to his listeners not to become angry when the see the wicked prosper. He had already experienced the anger and worry that comes when your focus is on people instead of God.
The first part of this Psalm has some specific instruction about “fretting” and what we can do to keep from it and we can also see what often the cause of it is. Trusting in God prevents needless fretting and frustration in our live.
Aristotle believed that we had a special emotion implanted in our nature which causes us to "fret" at undeserved prosperity. We would all have to agree that it is a common feeling and it is found even in the best of characters.
The Hebrew word for fret is khaw-raw is from a primary word that means to glow or grow warm. Figuratively it is used to mean to blaze up with anger, zeal, jealousy or displeasure. It is used here of being angry. We associate the word fret with worry or to stew over something but that is usually because there is some degree of anger involved. It is generally because our anger causes the pot of worry to boil. In this Psalm we are told not to fret in verses 1,7 and 8 and specifically not to fret because of evildoers. We are not to be envious of the workers of iniquity even when they succeed in the wicked ways and are able to carry out their wicked schemes, (vs.7) . When we focus on what others do and we see that it is wrong but they come out with what looks like success we get angry. It drives the person who is trying to walk with the Lord nuts when he sees someone who has no interest in God prosper when in fact he is in open rebellion to God.
But we are still told…NOT TO FRET. It only leads to evil (v.8). There is a temptation to follow in the path of the wicked because of their prosperity. If we do not keep this emotion in check and under the control of the spirit we become envious.(v.1) if we give in to the temptation we find ourselves guilty of the very things that make us angry with them.
Anger and worry (what fretting is) are two very destructive emotions. They reveal a lack of faith that God loves us and is in control. We should not worry; instead, we should trust in God, giving ourselves to him for his use and safekeeping. What worries you can also master you and when you add anger to the mix you find yourself deeply in bondage. But if you focus on God and his goodness, you trust that He is in control, then you will find peace. We have to ask ourselves, “Where do I focus my attention? When we trust God we are able to have a righteous anger concerning the sin and wrong doing of others but it also keep us from jealousy of their prosperity.
Trust results in confidence in God. The word here for trust is a primary root word that means to hurry to a place for refuge. Do you rush to the Lord for refuge or do you seek to take things in to your own hands. Figuratively it means to trust, to be confident, to be sure or bold, secure, without care. An example would be when my grandchildren trusted me to catch them as the jumped into the pool they jump with confidence because they know I will, every time. Sometimes, they go under water for a couple of seconds but they come up, gasp for air and then smile because they know I’ve got them. Trusting God means that we jump into His arms and He catches us. We may go under the water for a bit but if we focus on Him we know He’s got us. We have confidence that He won’t let us go. And He won’t. Ever.
The greatest reward in trusting God is that, They shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace,(vs.11) Those that trust God may not have a lot of physical wealth but they will have something that is even better.
They will have an abundance of peace, inward peace and tranquility of mind and peace with God,