HUNGRY AND THIRSTY? EAT AND DRINK JESUS!!

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

As I was meditating on this verse of scripture, I am thinking about two of the basic motivations for survival - hunger and thirst. From the moment man took his first breath, the need to eat and drink motivated mankind to hunt, harvest, explore, and find sources for satisfying these needs. So, how does this relate to us as Christians?


When we experience the love of God through the salvation experience, we become a new creature. The Holy Spirit begins to indwell in us and we find that we have new needs as well. Our soul begins to long for more and more of God and His wisdom. The void that was the remnant of God in us suddenly is awakened by the presence of the Holy Spirit and we start desiring to fill that capacity up with more and more of Him.


In John 6:48, Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." Jesus and our relationship to Him is where we are spiritually fed. Spending time with the Lord makes us grow and be in good spiritual health. We eat the Bread of Life by getting into the word of God, meditating on that word, praying in the Spirit, and applying it wisely to our new life. Just like good nutrition causes a child to grow and be healthy, the Bread of Life causes the child of God to change from glory to glory to glory. What we were begins to disappear and what we have become begins to emerge because of the spiritual nutrition we ingest through Christ.


In John chapter 4, we see an account of Jesus talking and loving on a Samaritan woman whose past life was scarred by sin and needed to be restored and refreshed by an encounter with God. Appropriately, they met at Jacob's well, a source of cool refreshing water. The woman offered Jesus and drink of this water and He told her if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for a drink. Not of physical water but of the spiritual water that cools, refreshes, and restores what sin has done to the life of an individual. He told her if she would drink of His water she would never thirst again. This is true because He is THE source of refreshing that never runs dry. We drink in His righteousness, His truth, His love, His forgiveness, and His life.

In the words of Jesus found in John 6:35 "Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." What an awesome and exciting promise from the God of the universe...fill me up Lord. That's what I am thinking....