Week 4 - HUNGRY HEARTS - part 1

DISCLAIMER: Warning! Before you begin reading this post, put your fingers in your ears. No matter how far away you live, I am quite sure you can hear me screaming. Blogger is the most frustrating word processing program I have ever worked with! Bar NONE!!! I write a post and it's formatted just like I want it. Then I hit "publish" and Blogger has inserted spaces where I did not want them (as in the scripture verse below) and eliminated spacing where I did want it. ARGH!!!! I redid yesterday's simple little answer sheet three times before I could finally get it to publish correctly. I have spent more than an hour on this one, editing over and over again, changing html codes, etc. and it still has a mind of its own. IT IS MADDENING!!! I keep quoting "tribulation worketh patience, Beverly" but I simply don't have any more time to spend on this post so here it is - goofy spacing and all!!!

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst

for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

This diagram is from Kay Arthur's book, Lord, Only You Can Change Me (I added our lesson titles to each beatitude topic). I'm not sure how well you'll be able to read it on the blog (but if you click on the picture it will enlarge it a little).

What I wanted you to be able to see is that as we approach our study of this fourth Beatitude, we reach a pinnacle that is really a pinnacle in our relationship with God.

When Jesus spoke what we today call the Beatitudes to His listeners that day on the Galilean hillside, he didn't just speak eight truths in random order. There is a sense of progression to the Beatitudes and the first four are directed upward toward God.

When Jesus said we would find happiness in being poor in spirit, He was saying that we needed to have humble hearts that recognize our complete spiritual poverty so that we will cast ourselves upon Him for salvation.

When we receive His salvation we then see ourselves as the sinful creatures we are and mourn over our sin - and the sins of others. We develop repentant hearts.

When we are humbly trusting Jesus and grieving over the things that grieve Him, His spirit begins to conform us to His image and His Spirit cultivates meekness within us. Our power is fully yielded to His control. We have a surrendered heart that trusts in God's sovereignty and allows Him to use the circumstances of our lives however He sees fit.

When we are fully surrendered to Him, we develop a hungry heart and begin to hunger and thirst to know more and more of Him. We hunger and thirst to be more like Him. We hunger and thirst for His righteousness - His holiness to be evident in our lives.

Do you see the progression? Do you see how each step - each Beatitude - moves us forward in our relationship with God until we have become desperate for HIM - and Him alone? We reach a pinnacle in our relationship with God - a pinnacle of passion for Christ.

When we reach that pinnacle of earnestly desiring HIM above all else, that desire becomes the forward thrust for the beatitudes that follow: desiring to be merciful and having a forgiving heart; desiring to be pure (having a purified heart); desiring to be a peacemaker; and then, as a result of those desires: being persecuted for His sake.

Meditate on thes things today. Ask yourself:

• Do I truly have a humble heart?
  
• Am I fully depending on Jesus today?
  
• Do I really have a repentant heart?
  
• Does it grieve me when I sin?
  
• Do I turn quickly away from it?
  
• Do I mourn over the sins of others and interceed for them?
  
• Am I meek?
  
• Do I submit to God's Word - God's Will - God's Way?
  
• When it's hard? When it hurts?
  
• How desperate am I for deeper intimacy with God?
  
• Am I hungering for His Word?
  
• Am I thirsty for the life giving water He brings?