Love hurts. It's scary. It requires trust. Real love is hard and a lot of work.
How do you keep a relationship strong? Some would say "We just keep falling in love."
The God of heaven is inviting me to keep falling in love with Him. He attaches a promise to that invitation, a promise of a blessing. Its the blessing I've been craving. When I desire God more than anything, when we commit with our lives to keep falling in love, He comes and fills up our hearts.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
We live in a society where many of us never hunger or thirst for anything. We never allow ourselves to physically experience either one. We dirve through a fast-food restaurant just before we think we might have a hunger pang. So this idea of feeling desperate for food or drink already seems weird.
To hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God is to desire Him more than anything. It is longing for His consistent presence and His input in your life, just like my consistent need for food.
So, how do I grow close to God? By choosing daily to deny myself something that is permissible but not beneficial. By making this intentional sacrifice for the sole purpose of growing closer to God. After all, Jesus himself said, "If anyone would come after me, he must denyhimself and take up his cross daily and follow me" Luke 9.23
But self-control is hard. We don't like to deny ourselves. But there is another level of self-control that too few are able to find. "So I say, live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature" Galatians 5:16 In other words, live with the willingness to walk away when the Holy Spirit nudges you and says, "The food choice is permissible but not beneficial - so don't eat it."
So the obvious question is how can we tune into theses nudges of the Holy Spirit? "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in touch with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25 We read the Bible with the intention of putting into practice what we read while asking the Holy Spirit to direct us in knowing how to do this.
Its not easy.It's not easy relying on the Holy Spirit to direct us into wise choices. It's not easy to dare to actually live a life in which we put Scripture to action. Especially Scriptures about self-control. It's not easy but it is possible.
