Hunger & Thirst

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

We are about to enter into our second 24-hour church fast. Some may ask ‘what is all this fasting about? Isn’t it a bit extreme?’ Well, it all depends on what you are comparing this with.

We may compare ourselves with other Christians, or our past Christian or church experience. However, as a culture, we are not where we were 50, 25 or even 10 years ago. When we look at the condition of the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand, the state of the culture, and the laws that are being passed there seems to be a vast chasm between God’s ideal for us and the life we are living. So we need to ask ourselves how bad do things have to get before we the people of God turn to Him? It was said that the musicians were still playing music while the Titanic was going down. Are we blind to our condition? We must seek God because only He can change things, only He can heal our land (2 Chron 7:14).

Perhaps we remembering fasting when we were young and vibrant and enthusiastic about our faith but somehow now we may feel that was just a phase. Friends, nothing could be further from the truth. As I have taught, fasting was normal practice for every Christian for over 1700 years. It was only when the Age of Enlightenment came along we started to think that we knew better than God and our reference point started to be ourselves and how we feel. We must return to the LORD Almighty for he promises when we do He returns to us (Malachi 3:7).

When the Christian is following Jesus and forsaking all things to seek first His kingdom they become transformed into His Likeness. In this way, Jesus teaches us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. When we are in a right relationship with God, the Kingdom of God starts to be unleashed upon the earth. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16). So it is righteousness is the key to powerful prayer.

To be righteous means to be right, especially in regards to matters of morals and ethics. In the Bible, there are only a few people who had the description: a righteous person: Abel (Heb 11:4), Noah (Gen 6:9), Lot (2Ptr2:8), John the Baptist (Matt 1:19), Zacharias & Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-6), Simeon (Luke 2:25), Jesus (1John 2:1).

However, Paul also writes there is a way in which we can attain righteousness: But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. (Rom 3:21-12). The Bible also encourages the work of Christ in us: We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Cor5:20-21)

This imputed righteousness from Christ then makes our prayers powerful and effective (James 5:16). James goes on to cite Elijah as a righteous man whose prayer stopped the rain and then his prayer broke the drought. (James 5:17-18).

There is no doubt of the link of the desperate cry of the hearts of a righteous person and the LORD acting. Jesus says those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. The word for ‘filled’(v6) is PLEROMA which is translated later in the chapter (v17) to mean ‘fulfilled’ as in satisfying the law.

Jesus says we are to hunger and thirst for this righteousness. This we see this sentiment in the cry of the Psalmists: You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you. I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Ps 63:1). As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Ps 42:1-2).

In the Beatitudes, the word ‘hunger’ is ‘peinao’ meaning to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire. The word for ‘thirst’ is ‘dipsao’ which means those who are said to thirst, who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened.

So for Jesus to say for us to ‘hunger and thirst’ is a bit of a tautology (saying the same thing twice). However, He says this for emphasis because he is talking about our attitude. It requires a turning of the intention away from myself to actually suffer the discomfort of foregoing the worldly means of fulfilment to seek the true fulfilment of the soul. This will take the denying of ourselves and taking up of our cross (Matt16:24). Fasting is a form of this denying so that we may seek the face of the LORD for ourselves, our family, our community and our world who are lost without Jesus. We forgo our short term comfort to receive complete comfort when the LORD returns to us and rescues us.

So may I encourage you to persist and not give up. Do not conform to the pattern of the world (Rom12:2) or seek to compare yourself with others. Let us embrace the invitation to seek the LORD while He may be found (Is55:6). Through fasting prayer, God’s ear is inclined to the cry of our hearts.

We shall gather as a church on Saturday from 3 pm and then prayer together at 4 pm. Let our combined cry be heard in the heavens.

May His Kingdom come on earth as in heaven.

Blessings

Fraser