God does not lead us to see our poverty of spirit, to mourn
our sinful condition, and to meekly accept we cannot fix ourselves, just so
that we will feel how hungry and thirsty we are. Neither does he lead us on
this Beatitudinal journey so that we will seek satisfaction for our brokenness
in materialistic, man-centered ways.[1]
Rather, God leads us through the down-side of the
Beatitudinal Valley in order that we would come to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
He must repeatedly convince us that our hunger for other satisfactions is
impoverished. He must repeatedly bring us to mourn that our attempts to satisfy
our souls through self-effort, through people, through approval, are utterly
hopeless. He must take us deeper into the awareness that we cannot fix
ourselves than we realized we need to go. He has to get us through all the
hungers and thirsts for material possessions, and food, and entertainment, and
worldly relationships, and religious activity, until we reach that place in our
inner being that acknowledges, with burnt-out efforts, that the thing we really
long for is to live with him in his righteousness.
And then, when it is that righteousness we wish for, and pray
for, and hunger for, and thirst for, he grants us the inestimable blessing of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”[2]
There cannot be any greater righteousness for the impoverished, mourning, meek,
hungering soul, than to have the indwelling presence of the King of
Righteousness.[3]And,
by grace through faith, that is what we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.[4]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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