Diligence: Hungering and Thirsting for

Continued 👇🏾 Diligence: Hungering and Thirsting for God 1. Hungering and Thirsting for God King David, the man after God’s own heart, teaches us to draw near to God through faith and love, believing that He alone is the source of true satisfaction for the soul. ✍🏾 Through the prophet Jeremiah, God revealed His grief, saying: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) This shows that God Himself is the fountain of living water. To thirst for righteousness, therefore, means to long for this divine water with all our heart through thought, word, and deed. ✍🏾David expressed this spiritual thirst beautifully when he said: “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”(Psalm 63:1) And again he said: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O Lord. My soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?”(Psalm 42:1–2) These words reveal the depth of his yearning not for earthly pleasure, but for communion with the living God. ✍🏾 In seeking righteousness, David also said: “Thus will I bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” (Psalm 63:4–5) To hunger and thirst for God, then, is to desire His presence, His word, and His righteousness more than anything else. It is to live diligently, seeking Him in prayer, in obedience, and in purity of heart until our souls are filled and satisfied by His divine grace. 2. Hungering and Thirsting for the Holy Word ✍🏾 To hunger and thirst for righteousness also means to long for the Holy Word of God. Our father David declares: “Your word is sweeter to my taste than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 119:103) This teaches us that the Word of God is spiritual food for the soul something we eagerly desire, hear, and live by. ✍🏾Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Matthew 4:4) This reminds us that true life comes not from physical sustenance alone, but from continual communion with God through His Word. We are called to be diligent in hearing, meditating upon, and obeying it. ✍🏾 The prophet Amos also foretold a time of spiritual famine, saying: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send a famine on the earth not a famine of bread or thirst for water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11–12) ✍🏾 St. Peter teaches us that the Word of God is like pure milk for the newborn, essential for spiritual growth: “Therefore, as newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby in salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1 Peter 2:1–3) ✍🏾 By the Word of God, we mean: 👉🏾The commandments and laws given by God through the prophets, 👉🏾The Word of the Father made flesh in Jesus Christ, 👉🏾The Holy Gospel that He taught and preached during His incarnation. To hunger and thirst for the Word is to continually seek it, meditate upon it, and allow it to guide every thought, word, and deed, so that we may grow in righteousness and salvation. Part 15 Continues ... May the name of the Holy God be praised forever and ever in every tongue that He has created, today and always. May the blessings of God's mother, the virgin, and the cross be upon us. Amen. © John's Repentance Reach out to us on our social media platforms and share it with your friends:https://linktr.ee/johnsrepentance