Tuesday, March 07, 2006
March 8th Matthew 5
Go ahead and look first at Matthew 5 . See how God speaks to you individually. Then come back, if you wish, and see what God has put in my mind/heart.
Key Verse(s): Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Title: Skating By or Seeking Righteousness?
Observation: There is way too much material here for me to try to assimilate in a single setting. Many Ph.D.’s in theology have been written on the first 8 verses alone. Yet just because of the overwhelmingness of the truth of Jesus’ teaching here, we should not shrug it off and seek for something simpler. In a very real sense, preparation for heaven is found here in the midst of the truth that is taught here.
The verse I picked is the best idea I have in summing up this weighty discourse. God desires not merely that we stay on the right side of the law, not that we scrape by with the spiritual equivalent of a C- but that we search, that we desire righteousness as passionately as we desire food, that the lack of right living in our lives and the world around us would cause us physical discomfort. But desiring righteousness will create an unsatisfied expectation for all of our days on earth. It costs complacency to hunger after the Lord’s righteousness
Application: I am much better at wanting my own comfort than I am at wanting Jesus’ righteousness. My standards need to be raised. Yet, I don’t ever want to be “so heavenly minded I’m not earthly good.” I need to have compassion, but not to dilute the standard of excellence that God wants for me.
Prayer: Lord help me to be willing, no, want to suffer for righteousness sake. Lord, help me to be faithful. Give me a heart to seek you, to seek you alone for the strength and conviction I need. Lord help me to not be satisfied with the world, but still to love the people in it and to hunger to teach them about you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
Key Verse(s): Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Title: Skating By or Seeking Righteousness?
Observation: There is way too much material here for me to try to assimilate in a single setting. Many Ph.D.’s in theology have been written on the first 8 verses alone. Yet just because of the overwhelmingness of the truth of Jesus’ teaching here, we should not shrug it off and seek for something simpler. In a very real sense, preparation for heaven is found here in the midst of the truth that is taught here.
The verse I picked is the best idea I have in summing up this weighty discourse. God desires not merely that we stay on the right side of the law, not that we scrape by with the spiritual equivalent of a C- but that we search, that we desire righteousness as passionately as we desire food, that the lack of right living in our lives and the world around us would cause us physical discomfort. But desiring righteousness will create an unsatisfied expectation for all of our days on earth. It costs complacency to hunger after the Lord’s righteousness
Application: I am much better at wanting my own comfort than I am at wanting Jesus’ righteousness. My standards need to be raised. Yet, I don’t ever want to be “so heavenly minded I’m not earthly good.” I need to have compassion, but not to dilute the standard of excellence that God wants for me.
Prayer: Lord help me to be willing, no, want to suffer for righteousness sake. Lord, help me to be faithful. Give me a heart to seek you, to seek you alone for the strength and conviction I need. Lord help me to not be satisfied with the world, but still to love the people in it and to hunger to teach them about you.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
