Chapter 309—For the Hungry and Thirsty
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:6
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Would that you could conceive of the rich supplies of grace and power
awaiting your demand. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will
be filled. We must exercise greater faith in calling upon God for all needed
blessings.
The strength acquired in prayer to God, united with individual effort in
training the mind to thoughtfulness and caretaking, prepares the person for
daily duties and keeps the spirit in peace under all circumstances, however
trying. The temptations to which we are daily exposed make prayer a
necessity. In order that we may be kept by the power of God through faith,
the desires of the mind should be continually ascending in silent prayer for
help, for light, for strength, for knowledge. But thought and prayer cannot
take the place of earnest, faithful improvement of the time. Work and prayer
are both required in perfecting Christian character.
We must live a twofold life—a life of thought and action, of silent prayer
and earnest work.... God requires us to be living epistles, known and read of
all men. The soul that turns to God for its strength, its support, its power, by
daily, earnest prayer, will have noble aspirations, clear perceptions of truth
and duty, lofty purposes of action, and a continual hungering and thirsting
after righteousness.
Let us realize the weakness of humanity, and see where man fails in his
self-sufficiency. We shall then be filled with a desire to be just what God
desires us to be—pure, noble, sanctified. We shall hunger and thirst after the
righteousness of Christ. To be like God will be the one desire of the soul.
This is the desire that filled Enoch’s heart. And we read that he walked with
God. He studied the character of God to a purpose. He did not mark out his
own course, or set up his own will.... He strove to conform himself to the
divine likeness.
There is no excuse for defection or despondency, because all the promises
of heavenly grace are for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
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