SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2020
12:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Happy are the Hungry
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:6
Message of the
verse: “6 Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled.”
MacArthur begins by writing “This
beatitude speaks of strong desire, of driving pursuit, of a passionate force
inside the soul. It has to do with
ambition—ambition of the right sort—whose object is to honor, obey, and glorify
God by partaking of His righteousness.
This holy ambition is in great contrast to the common ambitions of men
to gratify their own lusts, accomplish their own goals, and satisfy their own
egos.”
Let
us take a moment and talk about Lucifer, who has most know was the being who is
now called Satan. Lucifer means “star of
the morning,” or more literally, “the bright one.” Lucifer was probably the most glorious being
God ever created, that things changed, and they probably changed in a great
hurry. I heard one commentator say that
it probably took Lucifer 20 minutes to sin.
We have gone over Isaiah 14:13-14, which speaks about Lucifer’s fall and
why it happened before but let us look at those verses: “13 "But you said in your heart, ’I will
ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit
on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ’I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Notice the “I will’s in this passage, which
relate to pride. Lucifer’s problem was
with ambition.
When
we studied the book of Daniel we came across King Nebuchadnezzar who was a man
who certainly was full of himself, and God told him not to be so full of
himself or else he would have a very big problem. Chapter four speaks of this and as
Nebuchadnezzar was looking over his kingdom he became prideful over what he
said that he did and for seven years lived like an animal. Nebuchadnezzar’s problem was with wanting
praise.
In
Luke 12:16-21 Jesus told a parable about a rich farmer whose crops were so
abundant that he did not have enough space to store them. He said he would tear his barns down and
build bigger ones and the live like a rich man for the rest of his life, which
as Jesus went on to say would be the next day.
God called him a fool.
MacArthur
adds “Lucifer hungered for power, Nebuchadnezzar hungered for praise; and the
rich fool hungered for pleasure. Because
they hungered for wrong things and rejected God’s good things, they forfeited
both.”
In
this beatitude Jesus declares that the deepest desire of every person ought to
be to “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
What is that exactly? That is the
Spirit-prompted desire that will lead a person to salvation and keep him strong
and faithful once he is in the kingdom of God.
MacArthur adds “IT is also the only ambition that, when fulfilled,
brings enduring happiness.” We are
surely all looking for happiness.
Our
Declaration of Independence assets that our citizens who live in the United States
have the right to the pursuit of happiness, and when written or founding
fathers did not presume to guarantee that all who pursue it would find it,
because that is beyond the power of any government to provide. Every citizen can seek whatever kind of
happiness he wants in the way he wants it as long as he is not breaking any
law. It is sad that most of our
citizens, like most citizens around the world have chose to pursue the wrong
kind of happiness, in ways that provide no kind of happiness.
MacArthur
concludes “Jesus says that the way to happiness, the way to being truly
blessed, is the way of spiritual hunger and thirst.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Sadly to say there have been things that I
have sought after that I thought would bring me happiness even after I became a
believer, but the truth is that they have not done that. This must change.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Seek after true happiness, seek to be truly content, be humble and have joy as
I study His Word.
4/24/2020 1:12 PM
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