How to Hunger and Thirst for righteousness When You Don't
A
big problem we have today in our culture is a lack of men who desire holiness
and righteousness. What our culture desires is entertainment. People give all
their energy to their phone, to the TV, and to this sort of entertainment that
just rots our brains. And at the end of the day, because all of our dopamine
has been stolen out of us, we have no desire for the righteousness and holiness
to get to know God or encourage our fellow brother or sister in the Lord. This
is a huge problem.
Satan
is robbing what is yours right out of your heart and if you don't get a hold of
it and start desiring what is righteous you will have nothing left. You will
have no presence of God in your life. You will have no true joy. You will have
given all of your energy and all of your time to things that are completely
irrelevant for your eternal destiny. You're determining your destiny right here
and right now.
If
you ever ask an addict if it was worth it to give their life to drugs and
alcohol, they would tell you, of course not. But why do they continually do it?
They have set up a pattern in their life. They've fallen into a rut, and they
are addicted and they feel they have no choice. Whatever patterns we set up in
our life, those we just start doing.
It
is not natural for us to just hunger and thirst for righteousness. If you
haven't been praying, you don't just naturally pray continually without ceasing
as the Bible talks about. If you haven't been in the throne room talking with
Jesus, you're not just naturally there. As men, we're not gonna just naturally
wanna stand up for good just because it's easy. It's not easy.
It's
not easy to take up our cross. It's not easy to make good habits. It's not easy
to overcome the flesh to deny ourselves to reject evil. It's not easy just to
cast out all evil thoughts and to guard our tongue and our heart, to guard our
eyes and our ears, those things don't come naturally. We have to start making
patterns and choosing good over evil, loving the light over darkness.
And
when we do so, when we start practicing what is right, then God starts to
instill in us and put in us a desire for righteousness and holiness. You may
have no desire or hunger or thirst for righteousness in you right now because
you are not practicing it, but you are practicing watching your phone. So
you're gonna have a desire to watch more things on your phone, probably really
frivolous things that don't matter. Maybe you have a desire to look at porn or
other things that are wicked. And because you're practicing that, that is
what's taking your energy and you're giving more and more energy to that.
That's
because you're practicing that. You're feeding your flesh. No wonder you have
no desire for righteousness and holiness. You're not practicing what is good,
but you're practicing what is perverted and what is evil. If you desire to
practice righteousness and holiness, then you will also have a hunger and
thirst for righteousness.
So
right now if there is something in you that desires to choose good over evil,
but just a very little amount, not much at all, muster up everything you have
and say, “Lord, please give me more of this hunger and
thirst for righteousness, so I can build my spiritual man and start putting
down the flesh that I can start practicing what is good in overcoming, and
start putting out and casting out these demons of evil, all these bad habits,
all these bad thoughts, all the lust of the flesh, all these things that I know
are bringing me to hell.“ If you wanna overcome in
Jesus's name, you need to start praying for a hunger and thirst for
righteousness. And as you practice what is good and make habits that are good,
the Lord will start to build you up. You will start to desire holiness and
righteousness. One small example I have of this is jogging, running, exercise.
When
I didn't exercise much, I had very little desire to go on a jog with my wife.
Even when I lived up in Yosemite, I lived right in the park for a while. And
even though it was the great outdoors because I was out of shape and didn't
like running, I didn't really wanna exercise and go on a mile jog in the valley
even though it was in Yosemite, one of the most beautiful places on earth with
my wife. But after I was convinced that, okay, I will do it one time even
though I don't really like it. I don't hunger and thirst for this.
I
just did it because my wife was wanting me to. I knew it was the right thing. I
didn't wanna do it, but I knew it was good for my health. I did it and the
first few times I didn't really enjoy it. I just did it because I knew it was
right, but then I started to make a pattern of going on a mile jog or a 3 mile
jog.
After
a year or so went on, I started to crave jogging. I started to enjoy it. It
became a time where I could not only just jog but I could talk with my wife on
a jog, I could pray, I could think. It became something that I desired. It was
a habit that I built that was a good habit.
And
these are the sorts of things we need to build into our life if we wanna desire
holiness and righteousness. You're not gonna just naturally wanna pray
continually without ceasing like the Bible says. You're not gonna wanna just
naturally be in the throne room of God with Jesus and him telling you all the
things that you've done wrong so that then you can get better. It's painful to
see yourself how you really are, but if you choose to start walking this path,
if there's anything in you that desires holiness, then muster up every bit of
it you have and start doing what is right and God will reward you. The spirit
of God will start giving you the ability to overcome and to desire more
holiness and more righteousness.
Without
righteousness, no one is gonna see God. No one's gonna please him. We have to
be holy and righteous, and we have to have faith. So if there is something in
you that desires to go this path, the path of the righteous, say, ‘Lord, I need a hunger. I need a thirst for righteousness. I
hardly have any right now, but I want that to be built in me. I want to have a
desire for the light. I want to hate the darkness. I want to have a desire for
good and hate evil“, and as you start praying and
practicing righteousness, the Lord will build you up. He will give you more
faith. He will give you a new tongue. He will give you the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
I
wanna pray for you right now if you are someone that is wanting to give your
life to Jesus fully, that you wanna commit, that you wanna hunger and thirst
for righteousness, and you just wanna overcome in Jesus's name. “So Lord Jesus, I pray for those, my fellow brothers and
sisters who want to hunger and thirst for righteousness that wanna overcome by
the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony that wanna have new
life and partake in your new covenant. I pray that they would devote their life
to you, that they would make habits of righteousness, that they would deny
themselves daily, take up their cross, and learn to live righteously, to learn
to love the light and the truth, and to hate evil and to hate darkness. We pray
to be the sons and daughters of the light. In your name, I pray lord Jesus.
Amen.”
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