New Year 2006

Matt 5: 6 and 11:28 & 29

A restless, discontent, a vague hunger for something to fill the void. Perhaps some company with friends, some light entertainment, something to make me feel better.

In the light of Scripture :"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6

The very opposite of that verse in Matthew is that those who do not hunger and thirst for righteousness will be left empty (or wanting). Emptiness leads to a craving or a hunger for something to fill the void.

And as humans, we tend not to hunger and thirst for righteousness, but for something more tangible to fill the void.

What you really need is fresh oil in the lamp of your soul.

"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.    My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"  Your face, LORD, I will seek."  Psalm 27:4,8  

We spend so much of our time and labor elsewhere – concentrating on where we dwell rather than on where He dwells.

"My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.   Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. … Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere." Psalm 84:2,3,10

If we are seeking Him first and foremost and are hungering for His fellowship, we will then be driven to seek His agenda rather than our own. He will be faithful to direct our path towards His agenda for us. When we set our own agendas and resolutions we become burdened with a yoke that is too heavy for us. However, the Lord's yoke is easy and His burden is light.   If we are finding that our yoke is increasingly difficult and our burden is definitely not light, then it is just that – our yoke and not His. Get yoked back up with Him and follow His leading in the work that lay ahead of you. His path will lead to peace if we would let go of the controls and follow His lead. Our path, which seems so right, will only lead to destruction. 

Hunger and Thirst

Consider these verses relating to what we are to hunger and thirst for and how we are satisfied:

Jesus is the Bread from Heaven which satisfies hunger:

"In their hunger, you gave them bread from heaven." Nehemiah 9:15  

Meeting with God quenches our thirst:   

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.   My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?" Psalm 42:1, 2   

We are to crave the nourishment of the Word in order to experience spiritual growth:

"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."   1 Peter 2:2

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."    II Peter 1:3

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!   Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?    Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Isaiah 55:1

If you are “tired and heavy laden” you qualify for the invitation in Matt 11:28. If you are groaning under the weight of the burdens of life, or trying to be a good Christian, Jesus invites, no, commands you to come to Him. The law says do; Jesus says come; you conscience cries “you have failed and are far from God”, but Jesus says come closer to “Me”. Then take upon yourself His yoke (which is light compared to your own and the devil’s) and learn His instruction and imbibe His meekness (meekness is opposite of self-seeking restlessness). Learn the lessons He speaks to your soul; they are not unreasonable but His burdens are “light”.

11:29 “and you will find rest for your souls”; satisfaction, fulfilment, no longer the emptyness and cravings which destroy. Learning from Him brings rest.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light - matchless paradox, even among the paradoxically couched maxims in which our Lord delights! That rest which the soul experiences when once safe under Christ's wing makes all yokes easy, all burdens light.