A HEART CHANGER!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

With my art journal in hand and opened to the page showing the next set of stairs that will lead me to the fourth red heart-shaped door, I ponder for a moment.  And then, I wondered why am I not running up those stairs?  Why am I holding back?

Then a light bulb moment happens and I realize that this red door – the fourth door, is a heart changer.

Two words – “Hunger and Thirst,” once connected to the righteousness of God, and then I will be satisfied.

Within that moment, I realized that I had made that red door into a revolving door in past years.  My old selfish ways in my life kept calling me back.  I would turn away because I didn’t want to totally surrender control of my life to God.  I only wanted to give certain portions of my life to Him.

Jesus would keep wiping the slate clean and yet I still wanted control of my life. Oh how those man-made rules keep popping up in my mind drawing me back to the place that God did not intend for His child to stay.  I kept crying out to the Lord for help, but I wouldn’t give the Holy Spirit control of my life.  I was a pretender – a pretender that said that all was well within my soul.

Two words – “Hunger and Thirst.”  It is within these two words that I express how I feel about God.  It is within my answer to how I feel about God that says whether I will go through that red door and stay, and feast off the table of righteousness or will I keep turning away?

Where do you stand today?  How hungry are you for righteousness?  How thirsty are you for righteousness?

Why are so many people struggling on a daily basis to fill the hunger and thirst within their starving souls? Afraid to let go of control?

For many of God’s children, they are hungry and thirsty for righteousness and yet don’t even know it.  They are not willing to admit that their ways and their thoughts might not be the right way.    They are not even willing to admit that there might be a little “self-righteousness” deep within their hearts.

Have you ever taken on the role of the “Great Pretender?”  Pretending that all was well within your soul and it just was not true?  Someone would ask how you were doing and you would just stand there and say everything was fine.

You can no longer go to the pantry of the world and think that you will fill that hunger and thirst within you for righteousness.  You have got to put a lock on that cupboard and move on through the door and open the pantry of righteousness and taste that the Lord is good.

I can honestly share with you today, that when I truly understood how spiritually poor I was, realizing that I needed that heart connection with what God had done for me, and I had spent the time in the lap of God humbly accepting His gracious comfort – I could then move through the fourth door and stay there and feed from the pantry of God.

What is righteousness?

It is the state of being right, of being in a right relationship with someone or something, or of being vindicated. (Additional resource information at the end of post)

Now in my words:  To be righteous means to be right with God – right with others and right with self.  When our lives are right with God the other things in our lives naturally fall into place.  It basically wraps around the Scripture found in Matthew 6:33, which is actually part of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus started out with the Beatitudes.  Seek God first and all the other things will fall into place and I will be filled with the righteousness of God.

A Spiritual Awakening!  Once you experience that spiritual awakening and realize that you are hungry and thirsty after righteousness – you will be satisfied.  Your soul – your heart – your mind will be satisfied.  You will desire to be fed from the pantry of God.

There is a good possibility that you might be “spiritually dead” if you are not hungry or thirsty after righteousness.  It is also a sign of poor spiritual heath.

When Jesus mixed that hunger and thirsty and righteousness together, he was saying, “Righteousness is not a luxury.  Righteousness is a necessity.”

Does this mean your spiritual life depends upon righteousness?  Yes!  It satisfies your soul!

It is a Heart changer on your journey to the heart of God.

Heavenly Father, Thank you for giving me a hunger and thirst after righteousness so that I might be richly satisfied.  I am blessed to be your child.  Father, I pray for those who are struggling with a revolving door not totally desiring to give control of their life to you.  I pray that they will feast upon Your Word and taste that the Lord is good.  Father, you know our every need.  Help us to follow in your ways and your thoughts that we might be closer connected to Your Heart.  I ask this in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.

My Song:  Holiness.  Holiness is what I long  for. Let Him have the reins to your life.

Holiness

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Scriptures and Resources:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  Matthew 5:6 (esv)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 (esv)

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!. . .”  Psalm 34:8 (esv)

Righteousness, the state of being right, of being in a right relationship with someone or something, or of being vindicated. “Righteousness” renders an important Hebrew root, tsdq, that appears over 500 times in the Bible, and a Greek root, dikaio-, that appears over 225 times in the nt. English Bibles translate these terms as “righteousness” (or “right,” “righteous,” “make right,” etc.) in some instances, as “justice” (or “just,” etc.) in other instances, and as “justification” (or “justify,” etc.) in still other instances. The interrelatedness of such seemingly diverse concepts reflects the richness of the biblical terms and indicates that the English words only approximate the fullness of what was expressed in the original languages (e.g., the noun dikaiosynē does not mean “righteousness” in some instances and “justice” in other instances, but always means something that incorporates what is intended by both of those words, and English translators must choose which approximation fits best in each particular context).^[1]

^[1] Reumann, J. H. P. (2011). righteousness. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition., p. 883). New York: HarperCollins.