Dear Brethren,

The writers of Scripture very often applied the imagery of hunger and thirst to illustrate a passionate yearning for God, a longing for His divine presence and to be filled with His righteousness and holiness. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus used this illustration in describing the attributes of the perfect [complete] man in the fourth beatitude.

In one of his psalms, David painted the picture of a parched and thirsty deer lapping up the refreshing waters that sprang up out of a bubbling brook; and Peter admonishes us to crave God's Word and His righteousness just as a hungry newborn infant seeks to be filled with its mother's milk.

 

Why is hungering and thirsting such a good illustration for how we should hunger and thirst for righteousness? It is because just as food and water are so necessary and nourishing to the human body, so is God's Word [His spiritual food] and His righteousness are so very necessary and nourishing to the spiritual life!

Just as a parched animal thirsting in a dry desert for a drink of fresh cool water; those whom God has called out to follow Him and who are seeking Him with all of their hearts must passionately long to find His righteousness and seek to be filled with God's divine nature.

This intense thirst and hunger as pictured in Scripture typifies the kind of hunger that a man has who has gone days without food, or the thirst that one has who is parched and dry from going a long time without water. 

Perhaps most of us have never known the depth of hunger of a starving person or someone caught out in a desert without water for days, but we all experience on a daily basis hunger pangs and becoming thirsty throughout the day that signal to us our need to take in food and water. 

Scripture uses vivid images of a thirsty deer, a starving man, a newborn infant, to depict what it means to have an inner ravenous hunger and an intense thirst which illustrate for us the need to have a passionate desire to obtain the righteousness of God which fills us with true satisfaction that we can only receive from Him.

If we are diligently pursuing God's righteousness as a deer thirsts afters the life-giving waters, God promises that He will reward us by filling us up.

If we are ever to be conformed to God's spiritual image, we need to thirst and hunger after His righteousness on a regular basis. To have a passionate longing for the things of God motivates us to do whatever it takes to obtain those things.

What is hungering and thirsting like? It is an inner motivation powered by desire and initiative that spurs us on toward taking action and to be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve whatever it is that we desire. When there is a strong longing (hunger) for something, that longing tends to evoke more courage, more energy, and the persistence to follow through until we attain what it is we aspire to accomplish or have; and we will take the necessary actions to achieve whatever goal that is set before us. 

A vehement desire motivates us the most when we have a clear vision; a vivid mental image of what it is that we think we need or want to have. When we seek God's righteousness with a strong desire to achieve that thing, and with a mental picture of it set firmly in our mind, this hunger and thirst ignites an inner strength and power, and with the help of God's Holy Spirit it pushes us forward until our vision becomes a reality.

What does it mean to be righteous and to have righteousness?

The English definition of "Righteous" from the Merriam Webster Dictionary: 

2: Godly moral right or justifiable <a righteous decision> based on the word of God. b: arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality<righteous indignation>. righˇteousˇly (adverb) - righˇteousˇness (noun)

Synonyms are: all right, decent, ethical, honest, honorable, just, moral, nice, right, good, right-minded, straight, true, upright, virtuous (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

These things are good but are somewhat vague; unless we know the Bible's definition of what righteousness truly is, we won't really have any idea what we are to thirst and hunger after.

Righteousness as defined by God is simply the keeping of all God's commandments, along with the statutes, ordinances and judgments and the whole Word of God; taking in God's words, writing them into our hearts and internalizing them into our very being; to become holy as God is holy and to have the very mind of God. These are the things we are to passionately hunger and thirst for.

The Bible's definition of righteousness is as follows:

When tempted by the devil to seek after the material things to satisfy His hunger, Jesus quoted the Old Testament that teaches us that we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, which means we are to live by the whole Word of God.

God created human bodies with the need for food and water in order to sustain life within those bodies. Hunger and thirst are the natural mechanisms by which the body alerts us of those needs. When we lose the desire for either food and/or water [i.e., lose our appetite] it is often a sign of an underlying health problem. It is the same spiritually; when we cease to hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness it is a sign that there is something wrong spiritually. 

Solomon briefly touches upon a profound principle in the book of Ecclesiastes that reveals that man has a vacuum in his spirit that can only be filled by God. Solomon illustrates this yearning for God by telling us that: God "hath set the world in their [men's] heart".

The Hebrew word for "world" is olam (Strong's #5769) and it means: long duration, antiquity, futurity. (Strong's Concordance) Some Bible translators render olam as  "eternity".

So, in essence, when Solomon says "world"; that word is translated from a Hebrew word which means "eternity". To paraphrase this statement: God has set eternity in men and women's hearts: a sense of craving for a divine purpose in the inner most being, it is a inexplicable longing which nothing in this world can satisfy, except God.

Yet, until a person is called by God, responds positively to His call and has the spiritual veil taken from his eyes, man cannot find out [comprehend, grasp] what God's purpose for their lives and His overall plan is: "from the beginning to the end." 

For those who are called to be the children of God, it is imperative that we seek to fill this longing (this hunger and thirst) with God's righteousness and the spiritual things that only He can supply. If 

we do not, then this longing will seek to be satisfied in the material things of the world rather than in the spiritual things of God.

To have a physical need for nutrient-rich, healthy food and clean, pure water and then attempt to satisfy that appetite by filling our bodies with unhealthy junk food and sugar/chemical laden drinks is metaphorically like filling that vacuum in our heart with the material things and activities that the world has to offer in place of seeking after God and being filled with His righteousness and the fruits of His Holy Spirit.  

When we continually feed our bodies with empty calories, such food tends to dull our appetite for healthy life-giving food; and after a while, instead of desiring healthy foods, we can become addicted to the junk food preferring it to nutrient-rich foods.

Writers of Scripture often used the comparison of physical hunger and thirst to the longing we need to have for God's righteousness and to be filled. We can use this analogy even further to illustrate how our need for God is taken over, perhaps without our even being aware of what is happening, by filling our lives with the pursuit of material and worldly things.

Most people when they begin to feel the pangs of hunger go into the kitchen, open the refrigerator door and look for something to eat to fill their stomachs and pacify their hunger. When they are short on time, it is easy to want something quick and easy; snacks that will quickly take the hunger away even if it is processed or fast food that is not that good for them.

Likewise, on the spiritual plane, we have a daily spiritual hunger for God that needs to be filled and satisfied. But if we are not in a regular regimen of seeking out His presence and staying close to Him, that hunger may be not recognized for what it is, especially if we have become spiritually sleepy or lethargic or just plain weary. 

We will have a sense that we are hungry for something; it may come in the way of an empty feeling, a longing, or perhaps an uneasiness in our spirit and if we are not looking to God, it is easy to fill that longing with physical things. It could be watching too much TV, constantly surfing the Internet, seeking mindless entertainment, perhaps an addiction to shopping for things we do not really need, or even an addiction to physical food and/or alcohol, etc., etc.

We think that these things and activities will somehow make this emptiness go away, so we try to fill up the void with other things other than God and seeking to be with Him. In essence, we try to appease that inner spiritual hunger with physical things, not the spiritual things that our spirit really needs; and just as we do when we feel physical hunger, we look for empty calorie snacks; junk food to make the hunger pangs go away. As a result we are not being filled with the things our body really needs and our health suffers because we are not feeding on the kind of food that keeps the body healthy and strong. It is the same spiritually.

If we seek our fulfillment in the things of this world, that will tend to dull our spiritual appetite and we become addicted to the things that take away from a healthy, vigorous appetite for the things of God; namely His righteousness, learning and zealously applying the whole Word of God to our heart, and seeking to grow in His character.

When we go looking for other things to fill up that void that we have for God, we can become accustomed to the junk food and even become addicted to it for we think that the junk food is satisfying our spiritual hunger but in reality it is not. It is only a temporarily fix and the more we substitute the junk food for the spiritual things that truly do satisfy, the more we dull our appetite for the things of God and desiring His righteousness.

We see this everywhere in the world as people look for happiness and fulfillment in all areas except in God's truth and righteous living. The carnal people of the world go wholeheartedly after wealth, fame, unhealthy relationships, power, pleasure seeking and immorality of every kind.

But as God's people (those who are the called out by God) we must not let our appetite for God and His righteousness ever become dulled by the distractions and material things of this world. When we fill our lives with other things, we can become so satiated by them that we no longer have a healthy hunger and thirst for the things of God. 

When we fill our days with all kinds of pursuits, activities, projects, social events, social media we leave no room for the more spiritually enriching activities. These physical things, of themselves, may not be sinful, but if we fill up our days pursuing these things more than seeking after God, they tend to fill us up (like junk food). By the end of the day we do not have the time or the desire to feast on God's Word, spending time in prayer, study and contemplating on the things we are learning from our study and what we need to be changing in order to conform to the image of Christ.

There is spiritual danger in filling our lives with the material, for while we are pursuing other things and other activities to fill up our lives, we are at the same time neglecting to spend time with God and we are missing out on the healthy nutritious [spiritual] food that our spirit needs. As we fill our lives up with the physical things of this world, we may not even be aware that our hunger and thirst for the righteousness and the closeness of God has faded, and there is a danger that it may dissipate altogether.

As our lives become so busy and preoccupied with so many things, we start to have little or no time to hunger and thirst for God. At the end of the week we may be exhausted from all of our busyness, hoping to make up for our lack of spending time with God during the week on the Sabbath.

But that is not hunger and thirsting after God's righteousness like someone who is hungering for Him from the depths of his being. David spoke of the kind of thirst and hunger that he had and the deep longing for the righteousness and the spiritual things of God.

The spiritual food and water that God gives is not only spiritually nourishing, but also life-giving; for the kind of spiritual food that God offers leads to everlasting life. Only those who diligently seek after the righteousness of God with all of their hearts will be in God's Kingdom.

Jesus Christ has much to say about this subject in His Word that expounds upon the life-giving qualities of drinking in of the water that He provides.

The faithful servants of God in both the Old and the New Testaments had a deep need to know God, to please Him and to be filled with His righteousness. To hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God is to be on fire for Him, to be hot for the things of God and to desire to be like Him in all of His divine nature and attributes.

As we saw earlier from the English definition of righteousness, there are all types of righteousness to which we can aspire, but there is one particular kind that God desires in His children; the righteousness of Christ. Do we want to be holy as God is holy?  That is what truly reflects the righteousness of Christ. If we are living according to what is right in our own eyes or in the eyes of the people around us, that is what constitutes self-righteousness. 

If our outward works appear to be righteous but at the same time our hearts are filled with envy, competitiveness, lust, hatred for others, etc, that is not the righteousness of Christ. What kind of righteousness do we really desire in our hearts?  With what kind of righteousness are we truly hungering and thirsting after?  

The righteousness of Jesus Christ is embodied in the fact that He sought to do the will of His Father at all times.  Jesus was not content in just obeying the letter of the law, nor did He seek to do what seemed right in His own eyes or the eyes of others. Jesus sought to please God in every aspect of God's law by living as a continual sacrifice to the Father. 

Jesus exemplified for us not just what it means to walk in obedience to the letter of the law, but also to obey all of God's commandments in the very essence of what those commandments require spiritually beginning in the heart.  Jesus' heart was completely in tune to the mind of God, with the same attitude and intent as His Father's attitude and intent. That is where the true righteousness of God should spring...it comes from the Word of God being implanted into our hearts and we plant God's mind into our heart by hungering and thirsting after Him and His righteousness continuously.

The true child of God desires with all of his heart to keep from sinning, but he is not satisfied to be obedient in that which is simply lawful.  He seeks to have the mind of God and to obey Him in his every thought, word, and action from his very heart.

Being truly led by the Spirit of God and thirsting for God's righteousness means to be seeking God's direction in all things regarding both our inner and outer life. That is the righteousness of Christ and such is the kingdom of God. As followers of Christ we are to seek His Kingdom and His Righteousness above all else.

On the other hand, to not have much of an appetite for these things can be compared to those whose love has grown cold.

The Laodiceans (as depicted in Revelation 3:14-22) are not really cold, but have become lukewarm in their hunger for God's righteousness, which means that they are neither hot nor cold. They have let their hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness get dull.

God says through the apostle John that the Laodicians think that they are rich, increased with goods and have need of nothing. These members of the Ekklesia say that they are full already; therefore they do not have strong appetites for God's truth and righteousness any more because they believe that they are already righteous, and have enough knowledge and understanding so therefore do not need any more. 

They have stopped looking for God's righteousness and for a deeper understanding of God's Word, for they have been taught that they must just believe and follow what their religious leaders tell them and that they do not have to search out and prove by the Scriptures as to what is truth and what is true righteousness.

The present day condition of the modern day Ekklesia shows by its fruit that there is a lack of this deep hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness. 

We are too satisfied with the teachings that we received in the past, we look to our corporate organizations and to our leaders to tell us what we are to do and what we are to believe. The focus is on the counts of heads, our building projects, our social activities, how much income we are bringing in; so we become deluded into thinking that God is blessing us with all of these things and that we have no need to hunger and thirst any more.

Brethren, we really do need a revival, an awakening to our need for wholesome food: the spiritual food which is right knowledge, restored truth with deeper understanding, along with the righteousness of God; to be a holy people as God is holy. We need to stoke ravenous appetites that can be liken to the zeal and passion in a person's heart who has an intense desire to search out all of the gold nuggets of God's truth and then to zealously apply them to his life. 

We, as individuals and as a collective body, need to be cleansed of all unrighteousness, of our false traditions and looking to men and organizations, and our Laodicean attitudes that have crept into our hearts.

What is the solution? How then can we individually and collectively begin to develop a vehement hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness? How do we rekindle the love of God and a love for His truth within us and begin to seek Him with all that we have? How do we start a REVIVAL within the Ekklesia of today in the years we have left before Christ's return?

Next week we will explore the ways and means of renewing a steadfast spirit and repenting of having a Laodician attitude that so permeates most of the Ekklesia at this point in time.

Have a wonderful Sabbath everyone!

Constance