Those who are poor in spirit, who know that they have no righteousness of their own, are ready for the kingdom of God and his rule in their lives. They mourn their sin; they repent and desire to make things right. They trust in God and his provision so they are meek, gentle and humble in their behavior toward all people. They are ready to receive God's righteousness.
But they are not just ready for God's righteousness, they know they desperately need his righteousness. They hunger and thirst for righteousness.
God's righteousness is described in various ways in the Bible. It is related to justice, faithfulness and integrity. Righteousness is God's moral law put into practice. Only God is perfectly righteous; he is the source and ground of all moral law.
God provided two ways for people to be righteous in his sight. First, there was the Mosaic law given to the Israelites; righteousness here required perfect obedience. Reading through the Old Testament, we see that the Bible provides hundreds of years of examples to teach us that no one can earn their righteousness by obeying the law. Even King David, the man after God's own heart, had to deal with sin in his life. Because no one can perfectly obey the law, Jesus came to live among us and perfectly obey the law for us. God provided Jesus to be our righteousness because only he could obey the law.
Believing in Jesus as our righteousness is the second means that God provides. Faith in Jesus is really the only way that people can be righteous because it is based on God's grace rather than our efforts. We don't have the ability to overcome our sin nature; we can't obey the law perfectly. But we don't have to be perfect as long as we accept Jesus as our righteousness, changing the direction of our lives to follow him.
The faithful hunger and thirst for this righteousness every day. God satisfies our desire for righteousness by providing his own righteousness for us through Jesus. But our hunger and thirst for righteousness is, in reality, a hunger and thirst for God himself.
How do we develop a desperate hunger and thirst for God and his righteousness? How do we grow in our love for God so that it surpasses our love for everything else?
Of course, we get to know God through Bible study and prayer. The Bible teaches us who God is, who we are and how we should relate to him and each other. Reading the Bible with an open heart gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to speak to us. Prayer provides an opportunity establish a uniquely personal relationship with God as we speak to him. But we also need to come to know God through obedience to Christ. God doesn't tell us to be obedient because he wants good robots who follow orders; he wants our obedience because that is how we come to experience and trust him as we grow in our loving relationship with him. We learn to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself.
The more we experience life with him, the more our souls will pant for him and thirst for righteousness and the more we will love God. The kingdom of heaven is all about knowing and loving God. We hunger and thirst for his righteousness because we want a closer relationship with God. As we grow closer to God, we will be more and more satisfied; we will be living life to the full in God's kingdom.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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