“I’m desperate for you. I’m lost without you.” ~Michael W. Smith

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Desperate, Hunger, Jesus Manifesto, Matthew, Matthew 5, Matthew 5:6, Righteousness, Thirst

Am I desperate for God?

Fortunate [Blessed] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew 5:6 (ESV)

Passion

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word spoken to me

And I I’m desperate for you
And I I’m lost without you

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread
this is my daily bread
your very word spoken to me

And I’m, I’m desperate for you
And I’m, I’m lost without you

And I’m desperate for you
And I’m, I’m lost without you.

I’m lost without you.

I’m desperate for you.

(Cry out to live)

I’m desperate for you..

I’m lost, I’m lost, I’m lost without you..
I’m lost without you

I’m desperate for you

This is telling. Are we desperate for Jesus? One definition of desperate is a person having a great need or desire for something.

How bad do I want Jesus?
Is Jesus my every desire?
Am I hopeless without Jesus?

Persons who “hunger and thirst” are in dire need. They will perish if they are not filled. Such is the passion of those who desire righteousness. In the context of the preceding beatitudes, righteousness includes several facets. It includes “justice” for those who have been downtrodden or who have experienced injustice. It includes the idea of personal ethical righteousness for those who desire a life lived above the entanglements of sin.

It includes the salvation-historical sense of God’s saving activity. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness desire to see justice executed on earth, they long to experience a deeper ethical righteousness in their own lives, and most of all they crave God’s promised salvation come to the earth.

The ultimate source of this kind of righteousness is God himself. His enablement is the only satisfaction for those who long for his standard of righteousness written in his law. Although the teachers of the law and the Pharisees focus on attaining righteousness through studying and interpreting the law, their efforts result in self-righteousness, which will not enable them to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But for those who deeply long for God’s multifaceted righteousness, they will be filled.
That divine satisfaction will come in a final sense in God’s future reign.
It will be experienced in the present by those who respond to Jesus’ invitation to kingdom life and enter a relationship with him as he fills their deepest personal hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Jesus’ disciples see firsthand the contrast between the self-righteousness of the religious leaders and God’s righteousness in Jesus’ life and ministry. As they continue to experience the transformation that accompanies life in the realm of the kingdom of heaven, their hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness remains real as they live in the already-not yet of the present age, experiencing a passionate concern for the right things in kingdom living.

This passionate pursuit of righteousness flows from a transformed heart. Jesus’ disciples will be vessels of God’s righteousness as they strive for justice, as they exemplify a life of righteousness, and as they bring God’s gift of salvation to a world still held in the sway of the evil one. ^[1]

^[1] Wilkins, M. J. (2004). Matthew (pp. 207–208). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.