He was preaching through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and challenging us to a deeper, more authentic relationship with Jesus. This morning I decided to turn back to Matthew 5 and do a little reading and reflection on my own. I am a firm believer that the same old, same old never gets old when it comes to God's word. There is always an opportunity to understand and apply what we've heard a hundred times in a new or more authentic way.
Ok, well, I guess I should admit that I do have a tendency to take this a little too far. I remember one particular evening in college when I was reading through my bible and trying to understand a familiar verse on a deeper level. The verse I was looking up was John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.I remember looking up specific words in that verse in the concordance (which is basically a bible dictionary) to try and gain a deeper understanding. It might have gotten a little out of control. Let me just assure you that the word 'so' in that verse just means, so. You probably don't need to look it up in the concordance. Sometimes there are not actually 5 levels of deeper understandings for words. They are not all onions with layers and layers of hidden treasures.
But I think sometimes its too easy to go to the other extreme. We can just read verses in the bible for a little encouragement and never look deeper or meditate personally on what they actually mean. I guess if I am going to tend to one side or the other, I'd rather spend too much time looking up the biblical definition for the word "so" than failing to grasp the depth of God's word and forgetting to apply it to my life.
(as a side note, the only reason I remember that particular evening in college and the exact verse that I was so skillfully dissecting is that my boyfriend at the time - the first boyfriend I had ever had - came over to my house in the middle of that study to break up with me. . . makes things a little more memorable, yes?)
Anyway, you're probably wondering how on earth I'm tying this back in to the Beatitudes. Don't worry, I'll get there. You see, this morning as I was reading through the first few verses in Matthew 5, I suddenly got the urge to do a little word search again. Matthew 5:6 says this in the NIV:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
I long to be filled by God, and I want to understand this hunger and thirst that must precede God's filling. . . So I opened up Bible Works 5.0 and looked up the biblical definitions for those words. I am happy to announce this morning that when the words hunger and thirst are used in Matthew 5 to express our longings for righteousness they actually mean (drum roll please), hunger and thirst.
Actually, I'm not being totally honest. There was a kind of cool description for thirst, but it was just a more metaphorical way of describing what we all know it means to be thirsty. So where do I go from here?
Well, I think sometimes I need to remember that the application of God's word is just as important as the dissection of it. Hunger and thirst might not have any hidden meanings or alternate definitions - but if I look at my life and ask myself whether or not I am hungering and thirsting after righteousness. . . well, there is my onion for dissecting.
I love being a Christian. I love finding ways to know God more and live my life more fully surrendered to Him. I hope the same old, same old never gets old for you, either. I hope that you find joy in the simplicity and the intense complexity of God's word. There is so much to learn and so much that I don't know. . . and so much to live that I know already.
praying this morning for a fresh hunger and a deep thirst for righteousness. . .
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