Encouragements for our troubled times No. 69
COVID-19 Series | Date: 15 July 2021
The Elders and Deacons want to encourage the members and those who regularly meet with us through this weekly letter. If you have news which you would be happy to share with the fellowship or request for prayer, then please let us know.
A message from our Pastor
Matthew 5:6
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
When we read in the Scriptures about righteousness, we must remember that there are two types of righteousness; self-righteousness and godly righteousness. The first is based on the imagined worth of the works and the merits of men. It is the product of pride that thinks God must be impressed with our efforts and is, therefore, obliged to grant eternal life on the basis of them. On the other hand, godly righteousness is acquired by faith in Jesus Christ who, when He saves us, clothes us in His righteousness. After we are made righteous in Christ, we have to strive in righteousness, to be holy. Therefore, when the Lord speaks of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, He is referring to our initial seeking after that righteousness that comes by faith in Christ and striving in righteousness after we have come to faith in Christ, which is how we are going to consider it now.
When the Lord refers to those who hunger and thirst He is speaking of that hunger and thirst we experience when we are starving and parched, lost in a wilderness with nothing to eat or drink, dying and searching desperately for food and water. Now He says we are truly blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness in this way, striving to be glorifying to our Father and Saviour, seeking not to offend the Holy Spirit and mortifying the deeds of the flesh. A true believer, although standing before God in Christ’s righteousness, wants to be pleasing to Him by being more and more like our Saviour every day. Do we hunger and thirst for this? Do we strive to be pleasing to him every day?
For those who do hunger and thirst for righteousness, the Lord assures them that they shall be filled. Their hunger will be satisfied and their thirst quenched. Their efforts will be fruitful and they will be more like the Saviour. Isn’t that what we want and isn’t that how we want to be found in Him when He comes?