Hungry and Thirsty

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. (Matthew 5:1)

My bride and I were married on Valentine's Day and soon we were expecting our first child before the end of the year. As we anticipated his arrival, we began to recognize our spiritual poverty. Our response – let’s go to church. This made us feel better but the reality was that I still had very little interest in hearing the truth or reading the Bible. But, by the grace of God, He eventually stirred up a spiritual hunger which caused us to become true seekers and disciples. One of the first changes we experienced was a desire to know God’s Word and to spend time alone reading and thinking about what it all meant. Gradually, this reading, thinking and praying led to dramatically changed values and goals. We began to see major changes in our lives. God blew up the box we had built around our life and He keeps knocking down any new walls that we put up.

Jesus has wonderful things to speak to each of us and if we follow Him our life will be an adventure. Not many, however, are listening. Many of us would say, “Jesus is my Savior.” But, He wants us to be genuinely able to say, “Jesus is my Lord.” He becomes Lord as we hear, trust and obey. When was the last time you spent even five or ten minutes personally reading the Bible? We are careful to not starve our body but how many of us are starving our spirit? Can you imagine God’s Temple where His Word is not read daily and He is not constantly worshipped? Yet, each of our bodies is to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit. If a person has no hunger for God’s Word, then he should ask himself whether he is even alive spiritually.

Looking at Matthew 5:1-3 from the perspective of relationships and especially our marriage relationship, it seems that the foundation of that relationship must absolutely be based on being Jesus’ disciple and coming to Him for His teaching. This coming to Jesus should be a part of our daily lifestyle not because it is our duty to have such a discipline but because we earnestly hunger, thirst and crave to have Him speak into our personal life. Jesus’ disciples were eager to be with Him. They soaked up His words and puzzled over them. We will be the same way if we are His disciples. God wants us to be Jesus' disciples. All that may be holding us back is our failure to recognize and admit our need to ourselves and to God. Let's ask God to make us hungry and thirsty disciples.