Matthew 5:6 — “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
1. The Importance of Spiritual
Psalm 42:1–2 — “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”
A. Hunger is an evidence of
Psalm 53:3 — “Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Romans 8:16 — “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”
B. Hunger is an evidence of
1 Corinthians 3:1–3 — “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”
1 Corinthians 16:13 — “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”
Romans 6:4 — “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
2. The Object of Spiritual
Matthew 6:33 — “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Psalm 97:10 — “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.”
3. The Outcome of Spiritual
A. Blessed - holiness is
Philippians 3:13–14 — “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 2:20 — “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
1 Corinthians 10:31–33 — “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”
Psalm 84:11 — “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 — “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Ephesians 4:13 — “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
See also: Philippians 3:10
B. Filled - to be satisfied and controlled
See also: Psalm 17:15
“A genuine Christian life is characterized by an increasing desire to know God more deeply. This thirst is not a one-time experience but a continual, growing longing that intensifies with time.” — Donald Whitney
See also: Romans 4:22–24
See also: 2 Peter 3:9
See also: 1 Thessalonians 4:3
See also: John 10:4
See also: Ephesians 1:18
See also: Hebrews 11:6
Spiritual Life Exercise
Each of us possesses items which we consider absolute necessities which may actually be quite optional for our lives. When asked what to save in a fire, people listed phones, internet, social media, car, and coffee pot, but in reality the two great necessities for survival are food and water.
The prodigal son desired this world's excitement, but he awoke in a pig pen and realized his need for his father.
The writer of Psalm 94 was not having a quiet day. He looked around and saw the wicked triumphing, the widow and the stranger slain, and men saying, “The LORD shall not see.” He asked the question so many of us have asked: “LORD, how long?”
Then, in the middle of it all, he tells us what was going on inside him. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me.” A multitude is a crowd. I know that crowd. His thoughts were crowding in on him the way worries crowd in on me at night: the what-ifs, the conversations I keep replaying, the fear of what tomorrow will bring.
Notice what he did not say. He did not say the crowd went away. He said, “thy comforts delight my soul.” God did not wait for the noise to stop before He comforted him. His comfort met him right in the middle of it. I find that a great relief, because the noise in my head does not always stop when I ask it to.
I am thankful the Lord does not only comfort us after the trouble is over. Just before this the psalmist said, “When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.” He felt himself slipping, and God’s mercy was already holding him. I have felt my foot slip more times than I would like to admit, and every time His mercy was there first.
So what is crowding your mind this morning? You may not be able to quiet every thought, but you can bring every one of them to the One who is “the rock of my refuge.” Let His Word speak louder than the crowd.
Finish the day's readingOpen each passage from Reading Today and complete it inside the reader.5 pts
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