1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 5 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst | Page 11

righteous through an act of faith in Him. You are now righteous and holy, My need for you
now is that you come out from among the world and be separate.
This righteousness that we receive from God will be evidenced in our desire from then on to
live at another level, where the righteousness of Christ becomes a healthy obsession to us.
The desire to be more like Jesus and to evidence His righteousness through us should, I
believe, become an all consuming passion for those who have received the gift of
righteousness. The following story illustrates, I believe, the truth of what it means to hunger
and thirst. Although the story speaks of a physical thirst, the spiritual application, I’m sure,
you will find to be obvious. It is an excerpt from Maj. Gilbert’s book entitled “The Last
Crusade”. It is the story of the British liberation of Palestine in World War I:
“Driving up from Beersheba we were pressing on the rear of the
Turkish retreat over arid desert. The attack crew out distanced its
water carrying train (in other words they got so far ahead of the
water supply). The water bottles were empty, the sun blazed
pitilessly out of the sky whilst vultures wielded about expectantly.
Our heads ached, our eyes became bloodshot and dim in the
blinding glare, our tongues swelled, and our lips turned bluish
black and began to burst. Those who dropped out of the column
were never seen again, but the desperate struggled onto Sheriar –
there were wells at Sheriar and if we had been unable to take the
place by nightfall thousands were due to die of thirst. So we fought
like men possessed, we fought like never before.
When we entered Sheriar the first objects we saw were the water
tanks full of cold, clean water. And in the still night air the sound of
the running water drove the troops almost to insanity as they lined
up so close to the water of life. First came the weak, then those on
guard. It took four hours until the last man had been satisfied.
‘I believe’, Maj. Gilbert concludes, ‘that we all learned our first real
Bible lesson on that march from Beersheba to Sheriar well. If such
were our thirst for God and His righteousness how rich in the fruit
of the spirit we would be?’”
This story, I believe, illustrates to us the nature of an all-consuming desire. It also tells us
that you can exist physically without food and water but you cannot exist spiritually without
righteousness. The point Jesus is trying to make when He speaks about being salt and light
(Matthew 5 v 13 – 14) is simply that “kingdom” people are easy to recognise. They will have
as a great a desire for righteousness as hungry and thirsty people have for food and water. I
trust that this week’s series of devotionals will have inspired you as much as they have
inspired me to seek for the righteousness of Jesus that lasts and is of eternal value. Now go
to church.