Righteousness

"Blessed are those who hunger  and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled."






Looking back, it was at times impossible to see the progress.  There were certainly those light bulb moments -- we all have had them.  But most of the time the advance was in increments too small to perceive.  He was drawing us closer -- and He continues to do so.

At the same time He was humbling us.  To move forward we had to recognize and accept our own spiritual poverty.  The kingdom of God, as it turned out, would not be opened to the strong and the self-sufficient; but instead to the weak and the wholly dependent.  We needed to mourn over our sin -- to truly repent.  It is only from this place could we pursue righteousness -- that we could thirst and hunger for it.

To pursue righteousness from out own strength would prove fruitless.  It can not be achieved as a mater of self-discipline.  The Pharisees tried that and failed miserably.

We have, through Jesus, a righteousness that comes through faith.  It is a righteousness not our own, and it allows us to stand holy and blameless before God.  It is a righteousness that leads to salvation and that was paid for by the very blood of Christ.  See Philippians 3:8-10. 

It would be a miserable mistake, though, to think that this is the righteousness that Jesus has in mind in Matthew 5:6.  If we have true faith in Jesus the righteousness that comes through faith and that is now within us will display itself externally.  We will begin to live differently.

I am afraid that many "Christians" claim faith in Jesus but then see no real fruit in their lives.  They claim to be a new creation in Christ, but life looks not different after Jesus than it did before.  But the Apostle John warns us not to be deceived -- if we are truly righteous we will do what is right:  "Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning."  1 John 3:7-8.

The point of all of this is not to allow us to test the faith of others, but only our own.  When we look in the mirror do we see someone who increasingly is conformed to the image of Jesus, or are we the same person we have always been?

Soon, Heartland Church will begin twenty-one days of fasting and prayer to start the new year.  Do you want your prayer to be heard?  Do you want your fasting to mean something to God?  Then you might consider whether you are living a life a righteousness.  And you might consider what God has to say about fasting and prayer in the Book of Isaiah.

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
    and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the Lord,
    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.