Wednesday August 31, 2022

Today is Wednesday, August 31 and we are praying through the Beatitudes.

I turn to the Lord my God and ask Him to fulfill His plans and purposes for my upcoming day. I relinquish my cares, concerns and requests into His mighty hands and trust Him with every detail of my comings and goings.

Pause and Pray

Father God, I worship You in the stillness of the dawning day and seek Your abiding presence. Open the ears of my heart to receive the specific message You have for me this morning. Amen.

I praise the Lord with the words of Psalm 63 and yearn for Him to satisfy the deep longings of my soul.

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. Psalm 63:1,4-5

Pause and Pray

Is it possible for a person to faithfully attend church, live the good life of a Christian, and practice religion, yet still hunger after God? Yes. Religious observance is not food for the soul. Without Christ’s indwelling presence, the believer is left empty. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, Lord and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You.” When we hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness, when we cry out to God and beg that the appetite of our soul be satisfied, God promises we will be filled. (Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: Discourse Two by John Wesley, edited by William Abraham).

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

How am I to be filled by God? When I hunger and thirst after righteousness, Jesus promises I will be filled with all righteousness and true holiness. God will satisfy me with the blessings of his goodness, with contentment, joy and peace. God will feed me with the Bread of Heaven and provide the Manna of his love. God will invite me to drink from the River of Life. The things of this world, as lovely and attractive as they might appear, provide merely fleeting and temporary happiness. I am only quenched by Christ dwelling in me and me in Christ.

Ask: When have I experienced the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit? How does the satisfaction of God’s abiding presence compare to the happiness the world brings?

Pause and Pray

Lord Jesus, You say I am blessed when I hunger and thirst for God. Awaken me to the hunger pangs of my starving soul. Help me recognize that I am famished for more of You. Reveal the gnawing dehydration of my parched spirit and pour out the blessings of Living Water. Come, Holy Spirit, fill my empty cup. I read the words from Matthew again and listen for the message you have for me.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

Ask: What image, word or phrase stands out to me when I slowly read this passage? What is God trying to say to me through these words of scripture?

Pause and Pray

How might God want me to understand my hunger and thirst? Maybe because I turn to immediate gratification to satisfy my physical hunger, slake my visceral thirst and appease my bodily discomfort, I never allow myself to gain awareness of the needs of my soul. Perhaps I am covering up my deep thirst for the presence of Christ because I fill myself with the temporary placating things of this world. How might God want me to turn to him in prayer and expose my deep need for Him? How might I ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Pause and Pray

Come, Holy Spirit, I long for your presence to pour into me and fill me to overflowing with the overwhelming goodness that comes from God. Gratify the gnawing appetite of my impoverished, starving spirit and let me delight in the overwhelming refreshment of your life-giving holiness. Amen.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

I leave this time of prayer filled with the presence of the Lord, I go to share His love and joy with everyone I meet.

Amen