X-alt: October 2011

Thirst after wrong things vs. thirst for righteousness

Sorry this is a little late!  October’s X-alt was looking at the stupid things we use to try and satisfy our spiritual thirst which will always fail, compared with that which is guaranteed to do the job!  We and others use all kinds of things including wealth, success, sex, drugs, alcohol, power, food, etc.

In the Bible we find that God’s people were always using the wrong things to satisfy their thirst apart from God:

Evil, wickedness and cruelty

Insults from others

False teaching

A good summary of the situation is Jeremiah 2:13-18, which describes how the people turned away from the “spring of living water” in order to dig their own wells which are inadequate and broken and contaminated and dirty.  When you know that God satisfies and offers a spring of living water, why decide to get your water from somewhere else?

Any of the other things we use become a distraction from the One who can truly quench our thirst.  Paul wrote that the things which distract us from knowing Christ are worthless compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus as our Lord.  He goes on to say they are “worthless trash” (Phil 3:8), although the word Paul uses could actually mean excrement – the best translation may even be “crap”.  The things that distract us are crap.  And with that in mind we watched the following clip which isn’t for the faint hearted!

The craziness of the wrong things we use to satisfy our thirst, is that it’s like doing what Bear Grylls just did when there’s a plentiful supply of good clean water easily within reach!  That’s what people do all the time – it’s mad!

Whatever it is – whether it’s alcohol or drugs or sex that is being misused – it’s like squeezing the juice out of an elephant turd and drinking it.  And when you think of it like that, the reasons for doing it aren’t that convincing – if people do it to look cool, or to fit in with their friends, or because they feel down, or because they think it’s fun – the fact is that it’s a stupid idea!

In comparison, Jesus teaches something very simple.  In Matthew 5:6 he says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Righteousness isn’t trendy.  Whereas people may be impressed by an unrighteous act like getting drunk, they probably won’t be impressed if you choose not to do that!

Righteousness is about living in a way that is right – towards yourself, God and others.  Ultimately it is God who is righteous.  So when we thirst for righteousness and seek to live in a right way, we need to start by realising we can’t do it ourselves and so need to surrender to him.  From there, we are able to enjoy fullness of relationship with God which satisfies.  When we go after righteousness, we go after God and in living righteously we find him and he quenches our thirst that nothing else can.

I finish with a question for which the answer should be a no brainer.  How are you going to satisfy your thirst?  Poo juice or righteousness?  But think carefully about your answer because (sadly) most of us, more often than not, like to reach for the juice.