Stay Alert this New Year

“Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.” -Mark 13:33

It is that time again as we celebrate our New Year in the Gregorian Calendar. We discard the old calendar, flipping from December 2024 toward the fresh 2025. It is difficult for me to grasp that we are 24 years into the 21^st Century! With this out with the old and in with the new season, it is wise for the Christian to turn to ancient words that never wither or fade in beauty (Isaiah40:8).

I need regular reminders from our Lord to stay alert, keep my guard up, and stay awake. Here, we see Jesus’ prophecy of the upcoming Roman invasion into Jerusalem to destroy the city’s many fine buildings and, of course, the temple. Jesus’ prophecy came true, yet the haunting words of judgment were but shadows of the final judgment at our Lord’s return.

As the drumbeat of time plays the same tune as centuries past, it is easy for us to be soothed to sleep by the lullaby of daily routines and earthly concerns. It is easy in the flesh to simply coast through life, go day to day, shuffle through work, take the kids to events, pay monthly bills, keep up with favorite shows, movies, sports teams all while Christ and His church take a distant secondary concern.

Some may say their New Year’s resolution is to return to church. Unfortunately, such a commitment with strong words does not last. As a YMCA member, I can tell you January is filled, but February returns to an introvert’s dream. Like the apostles at Gethsemane, sleep overtakes those with commitments made only verbally instead of staying alert in prayer.

What does this have to do with staying alert for the return of Jesus? 2025 is one year closer to the climax of human history: the return of Christ. Does your life reflect a posture of worship of the returning Lord with awareness, alertness, on guard? For the time is drawing near, as our Lord says, “the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). In the meantime, wars. Famines. Broken relationships. False Christs. Tribulation. Betrayal from loved ones. Lawlessness increases. And the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). This Jesus warned us of in contrast to those who endure to the end.

A loveless heart is the condition of “many”. This includes those once passionately professing Christianity. Those once good friends. Even those claiming Christianity with hidden evils compromising their theology. Those gaining trust of others only to slide others into their own compromise. Piece by piece, like a New Year’s resolution, slowly compromise turns to daily concerns and the very thought of Jesus, worship, and church life become numb if not completely dead. Or, church is something to infest with a love grown cold.

John even warns us in I John 3 not to be like Cain the murderer. Of course, taken with the Sermon on the Mount, this is speaking of a cold heart that does not love the church, but harbors hatred in the heart (Matthew 5:22). “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” (I John3:14).

So, we must take this command to love one another as one of combat with internal sin and commitment to true love, steadfast love, we have received from God. So we must be strong in our watchfulness with one another. To “act like men” is connected to doing all things in love (I Corinthians 16:13-14). Watch one another and keep one another awake with a warm love for Jesus, His Word, and His church. To guard ourselves from lawlessness, which is saying we become our own gods making our own laws in a land where “everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Jesus is Lord, and He is good. Reader, I implore you to make this resolution: to draw near to the Lord and love Him increasingly. Draw near to Him humbly. Taste and see the Lord is good. Become active in the life of the local church to be watched over and to keep your love for Jesus and His church warm. All while we await that glorious day of His return.

Let us not be like the unwise bridesmaids sleeping without oil (Matthew 25:1-13). If we sleep, let us regularly be awakened by the Lord like the apostles at Gethsemane. To regularly gather with the church, to hear the Word of God faithfully taught and preached, as another day then another year draws us closer to Jesus’ return that “you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew25:13). Let us, then, faithfully remain watchful together.

Heavenly Father, we confess we become drowsy. We slumber. The world which gives us trouble regularly has a numbing effect, deadening our resolutions no matter how strongly we felt or worded them at the beginning. Our endurance is only possible by Your mighty hand. Lord, strengthen our hearts to love warmly with brotherly love, letting love be genuine, with hearts eager for our Lord’s return. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Rejoicing through Great Change

Psalm104:19 reads, “God made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.” Our Creator fixed those times at creation (Genesis 1:14). I find this thought of consistent order under our unchanging God’s hands comforting, as I find myself in a season of great change.

In 15 years of pastoral ministry, I have witnessed a lot of change. Our great enemy death has claimed so many friends. Church members may suddenly appear, then vanish. Old leaders I relied on step down, new leaders rise. I watch as my own children are growing up. My hair is beginning to shine with new white hairs. Time answering to our Creator’s drum beat marches on.

The familiar fades. The predicable deteriorates. However, we can and must “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). We can have great joy in the Lord with every season of change. First, because our God is unchanging. This is good news, for His promises to us are unchanging. “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). Our salvation is dependent on our unchanging God, not on us. Life everlasting is promised by He who lives forever and does not change!

In Isaiah 40, the prophet compares our flesh with grass and asks to consider the beauty of the flowers in such a field of grass. The grass withers, the flower’s beauty fades when God breathes on the field. But the Word of God endures forever. Never dying. Never fading in beauty.

In every season of change, our unchanging God washes us with the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26). We are in need of change, and our unchanging God is good to change us through every season that we might be presented to Christ as a bride beautifully adorned by His Word which never dies nor fades in beauty.

Now, dear reader, consider this. Our unchanging God is to be delighted in during change. Do not let your heart fall into bitterness when the familiar fades and the predictable deteriorates. Rather, delight yourself in the Lord Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Christ Himself is to be our comfort and joy, not familiarity and predictability in our earthly life.

When the temple was rebuilt as recorded in Ezra, some saw it and shouted with joy! However, the folks who remembered the glory of the first temple wept (Ezra3:12). Things are not what they once were. They took a look at such great change and wept while others rejoiced in the same sight. We should rejoice that God would give us life long enough to witness change and to see His faithfulness from generation to generation as He raises up leaders in their youth.

For our Creator’s drum beat marches toward that final day when all the world’s troubles and sorrows will be swallowed up forever. Oh, beloved child of God, our Savior’s hands will wipe away the tears from our eyes for the last time (Revelation21:4)! No more sorrow. No more pain. We will enjoy the comfort and joy in the presence of our unchanging God…forever.

Born to Save Sinners

“The LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” –Genesis 39:21

Joseph was in Egypt, but not by choice. He was beaten by his brothers, thrown into a pit only to be pulled out of the pit to be sold into slavery. Yet, the Lord’s favor promised in dreams of his brothers kneeling before him remained on Joseph. He was appointed by his Egyptian master Potiphar to head the home, and his master prospered and had no worries under Joseph’s care.

Yet, Potiphar’s wife kept making sexual advances at the young, handsome Hebrew. Joseph remained faithful saying, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Genesis 39:9)? The lustful woman kept advancing, one day trapping Joseph only to see him flee from evil. In the chaos, she held Joseph’s garment and deceived her husband into believing Joseph was the evil one. Potiphar then threw Joseph in the pit, though he did no wrong.

It is here Moses reminds us God’s steadfast love and favor remained on Joseph, and this time in the sight of the prison master. Moses inserts a short story about his brother Judah before returning to the Joseph narrative in Genesis 38, a chapter filled with sexual immorality. First, Judah took a Canaanite woman as a wife, something God prohibited. Then, Judah found a wife for his son named Tamar, who was widowed as both Judah’s sons were wicked and the Lord took their lives.

Tamar then dressed as a cult prostitute to seduce her father-in-law Judah, only to disappear with his belongings. When she was found to be pregnant, Judah judged her guilty and deserving death (Genesis 38:24). Yet, Tamar brought out Judah’s belongings which proved his culpability. It is here, Judah confessed Tamar to be more righteous than him, which in a way confesses his guilt and deserving more than death (vs 26).

Why does God’s Word tell us Joseph has God’s steadfast love and favor on him, yet he is imprisoned and suffers for sexual crimes he did not commit while Judah commits heinous sexual crimes, confesses guilt, and does not suffer as Joseph does? Read on, and we find Judah confessing he deserves punishment for his sin against Joseph (Genesis 44:16), only for Joseph to reconcile with his guilty brothers, draw them near to himself and tell them God sent Joseph ahead in suffering then exaltation to preserve their lives (Genesis 45:4-5). What the brothers meant for evil, God sovereignly meant for good (Genesis 50:20). By his sufferings, the brothers’ lives where preserved by God’s hand.

Think deeply what God is pointing us to in the favored Son Jesus Christ. He is perfectly righteous, yet treated as a great criminal. Suffering mockery and beatings. By His wounds we have inflicted on the Son of God, we sinners are healed. He suffered instead of us, and by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone we receive His benefits.

Think about the great evil of Judah and his brothers, plotting evil against their brother with intense jealousy. Jesus taught on this evil in His parable of the wicked tenants. The tenants were left the vineyard as the master went to the far country. Sending servants to receive his share, the tenants beat them all. Finally, the master sent his son, but the wicked tenants killed the son expecting to take his inheritance (Matthew 21:38).

Jacob, Joseph and the brothers’ father, passed away with a final request for Joseph to forgive his brothers all their sins (Genesis 50:17). On His cross, our Lord cried out, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). At Jacob’s funeral, Joseph gathered his brothers now forgiven and said not to fear twice, then a promise of good. He will provide for them.

Joseph was born to suffer, then be exalted to save his wicked brothers, all by God’s sovereign hand. Deeper still, the sinless Christ was born to save sinners as Joseph was told to name Him Jesus (Matthew 1:21), a saying trustworthy and deserving your full acceptance (I Timothy 1:15).

Dear sinner, think upon the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. Jesus did this willingly. Christmas is the time we meditate on the Son of God taking on flesh, being rejected and despised, suffered and crucified as a criminal though He did not wrong, to save the wicked. Deeper than the weeping Joseph’s drawing his wicked brothers to himself with forgiveness, Jesus draws sinners to Himself to forgive us and reconcile us to our heavenly Father. Sinner, believe upon Christ and call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

As Linus concluding in his reading of Luke 2, “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”

This is what Christmas is all about. God sending His favored Son to suffer and die instead of you to save many, glorifying our God who is mighty to save.

Heavenly Father, as this season draws family and friends together, remind us why Jesus came into the world: to save sinners. A sinner like me. All praise be to our gracious God who placed our guilt on Christ and His righteousness on us that we may glorify our God and enjoy You forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God's Providence in Suffering

“All Jacob’s sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, 'No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.' Thus his father wept for Joseph.” – Genesis 37:35

Joseph was the favored son of Jacob. Jacob, the “heel grabber” who fought with Esau even in the womb of his mother. This Jacob who deceived his blind father Isaac to give him a blessing by wearing Esau’s robe and slaughtering a goat so his mother could make Isaac’s favorite meal. Now, his sons conspired to kill, but then sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. They stripped Joseph of the coat of many colors, a gift from their father. They dipped it in goat’s blood and gave it to their father. This Jacob who deceived with a robe and goat’s blood now is the one being deceived by his own sons in like manner.

Jacob receives his son’s coat and refuses to be comforted. He will go to his grave to the place of the dead where he believes Joseph is. And he will go with great weeping. Jacob did not know Joseph was bound and traveling with an Ishmaelite caravan to be sold as a slave in Egypt.

It is here, in this impossible situation of great injustice as well as great mourning, we marvel at the providence of God. We learn from Scripture “the Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works” (Psalm 145:17). God is perfect in all His ways (Psalm 18:30). “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose,” (Romans 8:28). Our God is the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (II Corinthians 1:3-4). Our Lord promises, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,” (Matthew5:4).

Jacob may refuse comfort, but Sheol will no longer have power when Jesus is raised from the dead. The promise remains. You shall be comforted. We believe by faith that our Lord Jesus stands at the end to wipe away every tear for the last time (Revelation 21:4).

Joseph is greatly mistreated as a slave. Falsely accused of raping his master Potiphar’s wife. Imprisoned, making a friend of a fellow prisoner who only forgets about him once released. Yet, the God who gave dreams to Joseph about his brothers and father bowing to him is a promise God will keep. For the famine God sends to Canaan drives the family, both the murderous, lying brothers and the mourning father refusing comfort, into Egypt. God in providence placed Joseph at Pharaoh’s right hand. With power and authority, instead of vengeance, Joseph delivers his family, reconciles and says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive,” (Genesis 50:20).

Beloved, Christ suffered great injustice. Just as Joseph’s father sent him to the brothers angry enough to kill, Jesus was sent by the Father to us, and like His Parable of the Wicked Tenants, we said, “Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance,” (Matthew 21:38). So, let us learn of God’s good providence. The brothers who sold Joseph to slavery, with anger enough to kill, lying to their father, receive mercy from Joseph whom God raised up to be Pharaoh’s right hand man. And get this, “by His wounds…” Wounds which we inflicted by our sin, we pierced Him for our transgressions and crushed Him for our iniquities! “By His wounds we are healed,” (Isaiah 53:5).

What we meant for evil, God meant for good. Christ who suffered now sits at the right hand of the Father. With full authority, He shows mercy to sinners. Praise God that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts, (Isaiah 55:8). How precious is the providence of God! His ways are inscrutable, that is impossible to understand (Romans 11:33)! John Broadus puts it this way: “More secret than diplomacy, deeper than the investigations of the wise, and mightier than all the kingly power, is the providence of God.”

Trust yourself, your whole self, to the providence of God. Through suffering, persecution, and affliction, His promises to Christ and all who are in Christ remains. We may weep here, but we weep with hope. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). And on that morning of the day of the Lord’s return, His hands gently press on our weeping eyes, we hear, “Weep no more.”

Heavenly Father, we ask for wisdom in our afflictions. Wisdom to look to Christ who suffered, died, rose again to sit at Your right hand for our good. Whatever You ordain is right. We cling to the hope of Your promise: All things work together for good. You are good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Think Upon the Lovely Things of God

“If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” -Philippians4:8

The pace of our daily lives makes moments to stop and think rare. When you do have a stop and think, where does your mind wander? Our minds can dwell on ugly things and anxious things, which never ends up promoting a glad heart.

A glad heart is not anxious but thankful in prayer, rejoicing in the Lord always, expressing a mild and gentle spirit to everyone (Philippians 4:4-6). Such a glad heart enjoys the peace of God. A peace which goes beyond our mind’s comprehension, guarding our minds to think upon God’s excellence and our hearts to be glad in Him (Philippians 4:7).

Such is the life of a Christian who thinks upon excellent, praiseworthy things.

We are commanded by God to think – to intentionally and regularly think upon – pure, truthful, lovely, excellent, praiseworthy things. It’s a command from the loving heart of God to enjoy Him forever. Such training for the loveliness of eternity rises from our minds dwelling on such excellence and loveliness of God here.

God speaks in His trustworthy Word of the lovely things our minds are to dwell upon. This truth comes with a warning to avoid immaturity like infants who are “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians4:14). Such immaturity of infant thinking spawns jealousy and hostility, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3.

Those who intentionally set their minds on the excellencies of Christ above will form better friendships, marriages, and parenting (Hebrews 1:3, 1 Peter 2:9). Christ who humbly served us and loves us first commands us to consider one another’s interests above our own. This level of service is fueled by minds filled with the lovely things of God. Promote goodness from a lovely heart which swells with good things which the mind thinks about.

What beautiful, lovely things am is my mind to dwell upon? Beauty is not in the eyes of the beholder, but the pure in heart will behold our beautiful God (Matthew5:8). When this ugly world entices your heart toward dark, impure thoughts, fight this by thinking about the things of God which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. When your mind goes negative and dark, fill your mind with the lovely things of God.

Remember, to have joy in God is a command from God (Philippians 4:4). We are to ALWAYS rejoice in the Lord. We can only rejoice in the Lord always because our hope is in His unceasing love for us. When our minds dwell upon the rich, lovely truths of God revealed to us in His Word, His peace guards our hearts and minds even in the most tense, hostile, hurtful things of this vapor like life.

We grow in grace, this increase of love and kindness and patience and gentleness, by intentionally thinking upon the lovely things of God. We fight worldliness and enjoy the peace of God together by thinking of and reminding one another of the lovely things of God.

Heavenly Father, in our war against worldliness and the threats to our minds and hearts, we pray now for wisdom from above for our minds to dwell upon Your beauty and truth. The evil one threatens us with devices to pull our minds from the lovely things found in Your Word. Guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We praise You and are comforted by the truth that Your peace which surpasses understanding guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. In whose name we pray. Amen.

God, I'm Sad

 “Jesus wept.” –John11:35

God the Son, eternal in power and glory, took on flesh, dwelt among us, and wept. Lazarus had died. He was moved deeply and troubled upon seeing Lazarus’ sister Mary and others weeping (John 11:33). I take comfort that when I am sad I have a great high priest in Jesus Christ who wept and is able to sympathize with me (Hebrews 4:15). Why? He is without sin. I can weep with hope for the sinless Christ sympathizes with me.

So, a simple prayer is heard by my Father in heaven: God, I’m sad. Perhaps I tell God like the Psalmist, “all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears” (Psalm 6:6). I look for my God to answer with comfort, “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:3). I know that “my groaning is not hidden from You” (Psalm 38:9).

I know how I feel, but in sadness my faith needs reminding from God’s never changing, never fading Word.

1) Remind me what I know when I feel sad.

When we see someone we care about become sad, we feel drawn to help. True help comes in unchanging truth God reveals in His everlasting Word. When you are sad, Christian, you need reminding of what you know to be true.

God reveals Himself to be an emotional being. Our God takes pleasure, gets angry, gets jealous, grieves, hates, loves, and even rejoices. He took on flesh and wept. He took on flesh and endured the suffering and shame of the cross for the joy that was set before Him. God’s emotions are perfect, holy emotions.

I know my heart is tainted with sin. Corrupted. So, temptations visit me in my sadness. I need reminders of God’s everlasting truth when tempted to despair, or become angry, jealous in my sadness.

Dear sad reader, remember what God has done. Sadness isn’t a sin. We become sad at the state of this fallen world. Angry, perhaps. And it all comes with longing for God’s kingdom. A kingdom which enjoys eternal joy in God’s presence with sin and death defeated.

Another reminder of truth is that God is with us. He is not absent from us in our pain. He draws near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). Puritan William Bridge reminds us, “Thus does God, with whom are reserves of mercies, reserve His sweetest consolations for the time of our sourest afflictions, and temper the one with the other in most fit proportion” (A Lifting for the Downcast, Page 53).

Feeding your faith with truth of the unseen you know is true is not to be compared to modern medicine where pain can be relieved immediately. I KNOW Jesus raised from the dead, and I know one day He will wipe away every tear from my face. I am still sad, but it is not a sadness without hope.

Dear sad soul, remind your downcast heart of truth. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

2) Remind me what is ahead when I remain sad.

We may be sad here along with the groanings of all creation for redemption, but “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

RC Sproul said, “Ultimately there are no tragedies for the people of God. God has promised by Himself that all things that happen in this world – all pain, all suffering, all tragedies – are but for a moment and God works in and through those events for the good of those who endure them…Tragedy for the Christian is temporary. Never permanent.”

I know what work the Lord has begun in me. I know He will complete this good work at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). However, today I am sad as sin still drags souls from enjoying God and death still takes loved ones. Christians may not weep like the world without hope does, but we weep. 

Yet, Paul commands us to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4).  There is joy in the Lord when we are sad. There is the key: joy is in the Lord. Such joy cannot be obtained by will or thought, but is a gift from God (Romans 15:13). How precious is such everlasting joy in the Lord, especially when we are sad!

I will never forget the first time my wife and I attended a Baptist church just outside of Richmond, Kentucky. An elderly man came to sing a special. He had been a widow for a number of years and sang with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes, “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free! For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!”

We may have tears of sadness and longing here, but we have hope of the future God has promised us. And He is good to gift to us joy in such foretastes of eternity along our pathway here.

What is this joy God gifts to us? Our Triune God has love in Himself. The Father, Son, and Spirit loves. John Piper writes, “It is an admiring, delighting, exulting love. It is Joy. The Holy Spirit is God’s Joy in God.” He continues, “This means that Joy is at the heart of reality. God is Love, means most deeply, God is Joy in God.”

When we are sad, our joy in God remains by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. He produces fruit in us, among which is joy. Such joy now is looking forward to the coming glory which cannot be compared to this momentary suffering of sadness here.

As we sojourners and exiles make our way home heavenward, God’s presence with us, His mercies to us, is a comfort.

In Revelation 6, those martyred cry out to the Lord, “How long, O Lord?” They cry for God’s justice, for God’s justice in Christ’s return means He will right every wrong. The Lord gives them each a “white robe and told to rest a little longer” (Revelation 6:11). The God of all comfort in Christ our Lord comforts those who cried this prayer.

The sharp pains of grief here are comforted in the Savior’s love for us as we, too, await that coming Day. “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (I Peter 5:10).

Only a little while longer, dear mourning Christian. Our Savior will return for us. He will restore. He will right every wrong. He will wipe away every tear. Rejoice for the coming day in tears. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

God, I am sad. I trust in Your promises in Christ. I trust in what You have revealed what is ahead for me. Yet, I am sad. Remind me of Your promises, of Your gospel. Remind me once again of what is ahead. Draw near to me in my sadness, and draw me nearer to You, that I may abound in hope. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Blessed Hunger

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” -Matthew5:6

The human experience of hunger and thirst are internal alarms of a great need to survive. These words are more than craving. Our bodies warn us of what is needed inside of us to survive and thrive. The instinct of a deep need for survival is one thing, but our Lord taught that blessed joy is found in hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

In verse 10, Jesus tells us there is blessedness in being persecuted, but not just any mistreatment. Persecution for the sake of righteousness. The very righteousness we hunger and thirst for. There is a blessedness to enjoy for being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. So, in context, the blessed follower of Jesus is poor in spirit, agonizes over their own sin, is humble and lowly in their relationships to others, is merciful even to the undeserving, is pure in heart, exhausts energy to be a peacemaker, is persecuted for living a godly life, and is insulted and mistreated without retaliation.

The promise for the blessed Christian hungering for righteousness and being mistreated for righteousness’ sake is this precious truth of Jesus: they shall be satisfied. This goes to Paul’s secret to contentment in Philippians 4. To know how to have plenty and to lack, to be free or imprisoned, to have plenty or to be hungry, Paul learned how to be content. Christ strengthens us to do all things (Philippians 4:13).

However, Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes for being satisfied is “fattened.” That is, fed until completely full. It’s the same word for the feeding of the 5,000. They ate until they were satisfied. If we hunger for righteousness, we have the promise to eat until completely full. Fattened on the righteousness of God.

The Christian suffers the longing for righteousness as a hunger and a thirst, then suffers being persecuted for having been filled, or fattened with righteousness. To desire our own righteousness, that is self-righteousness, is the natural desire of the sinner. God works this longing, this desire for His righteousness.

Such a desire goes from selfishness to the very next verse, the blessed shows mercy (Matthew 5:7). This blessed mercy shower receives mercy. So, a pursuit of God’s righteousness has two results. One, that we mourn how far short we fall of God’s righteousness. Yet, with a new born-again heart, sin is dead to us and we pursue righteousness with the reward of being fattened with the righteousness we crave.

We are to long for eternity. Yet, we have never experienced eternity. We have only tasted portions of the eternal goodness of God. By faith in Christ, we receive the assured promise of everlasting life (I John 2:25). There, in eternal glory, we receive the fullness of this promise. While we sojourn here on earth, let us pursue His righteousness. Even if we are mistreated for pursuing a godly life (II Timothy 3:12), we are fattened with righteousness and content.

Heavenly Father, give us hearts craving Your righteousness. Where sin is dead to us and Your beautiful truth is alive in the deepest places of our hearts. May we be satisfied and content, even in the hardest times on earth, knowing You will lead us home with You in Your eternal dwelling place where we will be fully, finally, and forever satisfied. In Jesus’ name. Amen.