I am hungry

Matthew 5:1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

On Saturday night we had our work Christmas party. We went to an exclusive restaurant in Buckhead and I was very much looking forward to it. I was very excited about the meal that I was going to have and curious as to what they would serve us. I was not disappointed. The food was excellent. They had various appetizers including shrimp cocktail that was my favorite. For the meal, we started with a crabcake that was perhaps the highlight of the evening. This was followed by a salad that was topped with some fried goat cheese. This was a very interesting concept, but not quite as good as the crabcake. For the main course, I had chicken and filet mignon with potatoes and asparagus all of which were cooked perfectly. Finally for dessert I had a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream on the side. When I was done, I was stuffed. I could not even quite finish my dessert because I was so full of the meal that they had prepared for me.

Now, I enjoyed this meal very much. How strange it would have been if I had not waited for the meal and instead tried to fill myself beforehand. I would have missed out on all of the food prepared for me and I have no doubt that it would not have been anywhere near as good. The very concept is somewhat laughable. Why would I eat before I was going out to eat?

I know that the analogy is not perfect, but don't we do exactly that in our walk with Christ? We try to make ourselves righteous instead of waiting on God to fill us. Wouldn't it be much better to wait to be filled with the only one who can provide us with righteousness? The only one who can satisfy our soul? My prayer for you today is that you can become like Paul who prayed this prayer in his letter to the Philippians:

Philippians 1:9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Note that it is through Christ that we can obtain righteousness to the glory and praise of God. This passage says nothing about any acts that we do that might fill ourselves with righteousness. Yet every day we get up and try to "do" something to earn God's good favor so that He might be pleased with us. But we should be doing something shouldn't we? Well, yes. We should be growing in the knowledge of Christ so that we can discern His will and then we will know what it is that we should be doing.

Paul prays in his letter to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

This is what I hunger for: to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I need to get myself out of the way though. In order to be full to the measure with God, I can't have any other stuff already filling me up. That is why I should not eat before I go out to eat.

Peace, Bruce