"Blessed are those who HUNGER and THIRST for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for THEY will be FILLED.

Hi Friends~


I am confident that you had a lovely weekend, since we did not receive any prayer requests of urgency. Remember, we are here to pray for anything.  God wants to know the desires or your heart.  I hope you are enjoying our look at the Beatitudes in some depth.  If you have missed part of our Series...just look under LABELS on the right side bar of the blog, until you find the word BEATITUDES...then double click.  All of the Beatitudes we have covered so far will be posted there.  I know that I have, and am learning more and more.  Next Tuesday we will be reading about this Scripture/Beatitude:

 "Blessed are the MERCIFUL, for THEY will be SHOWN MERCY."  (Matthew 5:7)

Today I am going to share from two different Pastor's.  One is from Pastor Ruth Haley Barton who wrote for the Discipleship Journal, Nov./Dec., 2003 and the other is a thought and prayer from Pastor Joel Osteen's daily message, which you can receive via email.  I like to receive email sermon's from many Pastors, so that I can pick and choose excerpts to share with you, along with my own thoughts.


First Pastor Barton's thoughts.  I couldn't share all of her writing, so I am sharing some sections of her writing, and some of Pastor Osteen.

"Blessed are those who HUNGER and THIRST for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for THEY will be FILLED."  (Matthew 5:6)

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?  With this Beatitude, Jesus invited us to cultivate an appetite for rightness within ourselves, in our relationships, in the body of Christ and in the world.  When we hunger for things to be deeply right and explore what that means in our lives, we are right in the middle of this Beatitude.

So how do we begin to experience our hunger and thirst for righteousness as a blessing?  How do these appetites result in our being filled--as Jesus promised?  The first step is to trust that our spiritual hunger (our desires and needs) is a good thing.  Jesus uses two essentials of life-- food and water as metaphors for our longings in a world where every emptiness is not yet filled.  He knows that our deepest unmet desires--the aches of our heart for what is right and good- and play an important role in our spiritual growth.

The word "blessed" means "happy."  Paradoxically, the blessing Jesus promises stems from our willingness to admit our hunger and need.  When we do so, it eventually leads us to the God who alone can satisfy our hearts.  When was the last time you let your longing lead you to Him?

Pastor Joel Osteen offered this about this Scripture:  When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is God's way of doing things, you will be spiritually satisfied.  But just like you have to take time to eat in the natural, you have to take time to "eat" or partake of God's righteousness.  Every day.   He has a table of blessing set for you.  When you spend time in prayer, worship and reading His Word, you are partaking of His righteousness.  You are filling your soul.  The more time you spend with Him, the more He will fill you and satisfy your hunger all the days of your life.

Here is a prayer that Pastor Osteen offered...please join us:

"Heavenly Father, thank You for the promise to fill my hunger.  I open my heart to You and ask that You draw me by Your Spirit.  Teach me to walk in Your ways of righteousness that I may honor and serve You all the days of my life.  In Jesus' name.  Amen."

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So, what are the desires of your heart?  How about sharing one in the comment section?  It will give us a chance to pray for you.  You don't have to leave a name if you don't want.  It will allow us to serve by helping to carry your burden, it is something that the Prayer Team's hearts long to do...pray for each of you. If you don't want to publicly share your request, please email me...my email is on the side of the post...and I will only share it with the Prayer Team.  They are so dependable and trustworthy and true Prayer Warriors.

I know the most important desire of my heart is for my husband, Dave, and son, Josh... and the rest of my entire family (on both sides) to know and love and serve the Lord.  I also pray that Joshua be safe as he prepares to finish school in the Air Force and be stationed in the UK for 2 years.  It is so far away.  I pray for his health, happiness, safety and that he remembers to call and write his Mom who will miss him so much!

 Or perhaps you know of an idea of something you can do to spend more quality time with Him?  We can all learn from each other and would love to hear your thoughts on this, or anything else about our Lord God.  And, any comment left before midnight on Wednesday night, will be entered into our drawing for the He IS Able blog's Card Set Give-Away.  We randomly choose a comment that was shared, and then we choose a number between

1 and 5.  That is the number of cards and envelopes that you will receive.  We will announce the winner on Thursday we hope to see you there.

He IS Able!

Traci Starkweather