04/04/2024
Seeking after those things which are of God like a starving man seeks food is, as my morning devotional reading puts it, "the proof of a renewed heart and the evidence of a stirring spiritual life." It goes on to say that this unquenchable thirst drives prayer. We will find that today's scripture reading is a blessing among blessings. It comes from The Sermon on the Mount, and specifically the beatitudes and speaks to us about thirsting for righteousness.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6 KJV
I remember the day I first confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior... I couldn't pray enough and my heart overflowed with joy. I was filled with a hunger and thirst for God that could not be satisfied. I was a boy then, and now, years later, I am an old man.
Over the course of many years I have had times when my faith has waned, yet, the spark of my spiritual fire has always remained, and been maintained by prayer (even the most pitiful of them). Each time that my faith has faded I find it has been rekindle into flame once again. Lying there, covered in ash, my spirit groaned, but it remained ready and waiting for the Word of God to feed it, and for the Holy Spirit to blow the flames of my faith back to life. In this way my hunger and thirst for righteousness, revealed itself again through my prayer life. You see, the flames which are blown to life by the Spirit are maintained by God’s Word, even when they have died to embers in a bed of spiritual ash during the cold nights of our lives.
I don't know where you are in your faith today; maybe in full flame, perhaps just a dim glow in a bed of ash, or maybe you are waiting for your fire to be started for the very first time... But regardless... Open your hearts wide to the Word of God and seek His righteousness and salvation. Pray in the name of Jesus Christ that He will ignite your desire for God’s love and presence. Seek out the Lord in His Word, and let the Holy Spirit blow across your face as your prayers are kindled, and you are led by a now blazing faith into a fullness of life.
Today is a good day to make righteousness our heart's desire. These scriptures from Psalm 118 are good beginnings to this quest, and this day.
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalms 118:24, 28-29 KJV
And these words that Paul wrote to Timothy should serve as an encouragement to us if we believe that our once roaring fire of faith is dying down into a glow. Let’s pray, and ask others to pray for us, and ask them to lay their hands upon us as they do…
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to[a] a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”
2 Timothy 1:6-9 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for drawing me to your Son Jesus Christ, and igniting the fire of my faith through Him. Thank you for your Holy Word that sustains my faith through the darkest and coldest of nights. Thank you Lord for the burning bushes, and the light of the lamps you have placed on the hill to guide me and lead me home to you. Help me Father to wake in the night so that I can feed and stoke my spiritual fire before it goes out, and the cold sets in to devour me. Open my eyes Father and let me see the lamps and bright fires of your kingdom as I seek desperately to find my way to you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who burns brighter than the sun, but is not consumed, and who shines from hillside to hillside, and in pillars of fire to lead me home. You are merciful and full of grace Father, and I will praise and worship you always. I pray that your Holy Spirit will give me the Word to pray when I am lost and call out to you. You are my hope and in you my faith finds its strength, and its eternal fire is rekindled. Hear me Abba and light my way as I walk barefoot on Holy Ground towards righteousness forevermore.
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
1 John 1:5-7
Amen
Rich Forbes