Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for an unquenchable thirst for truth and righteousness is precious to the Lord, and it reflects His own heart. What you have described is exactly the work only God can do in a human heart.
Scripture teaches that every person is made body, soul and spirit, and each part has its own thirst. There is physical thirst, and there is emotional thirst for love, for meaning, for security and purpose. But deeper than both is spiritual thirst, a thirst for God Himself. David described it when he said as the deer pants after the water brook, so his soul pants after God. Jesus spoke to this when He said that whoever drinks of ordinary water will thirst again. Every physical experience, every ambition, every achievement can be written over with those words, you will thirst again. They do not satisfy the deep part of man. But Jesus also said, if anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink, and the water I give will become in him a well springing up into everlasting life. Only He can quench spiritual thirst because He is God, and that thirst is ultimately for Him.
That is why your prayer for these lawyers and others is so right. Education, knowledge of the law, even great ability, cannot create righteousness. Scripture is clear that our own righteousness is as filthy rags and that in our flesh dwells no good thing. Israel sought righteousness by trying to keep the law and never attained it, while others who knew they were lost received the righteousness of God simply by faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. God imputes faith for righteousness and clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. Unless our righteousness exceeds mere outward religious or moral effort, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. True righteousness is not achieved, it is received through faith in Jesus.
When God opens our eyes to see ourselves as He sees us, it creates a hunger and thirst for that true righteousness. Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. That hunger becomes a watershed that drives us to Him for the mercy and grace only He can give. And God does not desire outward performance alone. As you quoted from Psalm 51, He does not delight in sacrifice and burnt offering for its own sake, but in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart which He will not despise. To recognize sin, to hate it, and to turn from it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit also bears witness to the truth in our hearts and seals it there.
Jesus said His words are truth and that the truth shall make you free, and that truth dwells in those who know Him and will be with us forever. To walk in truth is one of the greatest joys for the child of God, and it is also what sets a person free from the lies that bind him. Satan is the ruler of this present world, and as long as he rules we will not see a world truly filled with righteousness, love and peace, no matter how much people strive for it. But Scripture promises that of the increase of His righteousness and peace there shall be no end, and that God in His mercy often allows hard circumstances to turn hearts toward righteousness. The story of redemption is our hope, that God redeems and restores even when there has been famine and failure.
So continue to pray as you are praying, with humility and without boasting or looking down on others, asking for His blood to cover, for His peace and understanding to be given, and for broken and tender hearts. Pray that God would give them that deep, unquenchable thirst for Himself, for His truth and for His righteousness, and that they would come to Jesus to drink and be filled. He is faithful to hear, and He delights to give His righteousness to all who believe and to lead His children to walk in truth.
May the Lord give you peace as you intercede, and may His will be done in each life you have lifted before Him.
Scripture teaches that every person is made body, soul and spirit, and each part has its own thirst. There is physical thirst, and there is emotional thirst for love, for meaning, for security and purpose. But deeper than both is spiritual thirst, a thirst for God Himself. David described it when he said as the deer pants after the water brook, so his soul pants after God. Jesus spoke to this when He said that whoever drinks of ordinary water will thirst again. Every physical experience, every ambition, every achievement can be written over with those words, you will thirst again. They do not satisfy the deep part of man. But Jesus also said, if anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink, and the water I give will become in him a well springing up into everlasting life. Only He can quench spiritual thirst because He is God, and that thirst is ultimately for Him.
That is why your prayer for these lawyers and others is so right. Education, knowledge of the law, even great ability, cannot create righteousness. Scripture is clear that our own righteousness is as filthy rags and that in our flesh dwells no good thing. Israel sought righteousness by trying to keep the law and never attained it, while others who knew they were lost received the righteousness of God simply by faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. God imputes faith for righteousness and clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. Unless our righteousness exceeds mere outward religious or moral effort, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. True righteousness is not achieved, it is received through faith in Jesus.
When God opens our eyes to see ourselves as He sees us, it creates a hunger and thirst for that true righteousness. Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. That hunger becomes a watershed that drives us to Him for the mercy and grace only He can give. And God does not desire outward performance alone. As you quoted from Psalm 51, He does not delight in sacrifice and burnt offering for its own sake, but in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart which He will not despise. To recognize sin, to hate it, and to turn from it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit also bears witness to the truth in our hearts and seals it there.
Jesus said His words are truth and that the truth shall make you free, and that truth dwells in those who know Him and will be with us forever. To walk in truth is one of the greatest joys for the child of God, and it is also what sets a person free from the lies that bind him. Satan is the ruler of this present world, and as long as he rules we will not see a world truly filled with righteousness, love and peace, no matter how much people strive for it. But Scripture promises that of the increase of His righteousness and peace there shall be no end, and that God in His mercy often allows hard circumstances to turn hearts toward righteousness. The story of redemption is our hope, that God redeems and restores even when there has been famine and failure.
So continue to pray as you are praying, with humility and without boasting or looking down on others, asking for His blood to cover, for His peace and understanding to be given, and for broken and tender hearts. Pray that God would give them that deep, unquenchable thirst for Himself, for His truth and for His righteousness, and that they would come to Jesus to drink and be filled. He is faithful to hear, and He delights to give His righteousness to all who believe and to lead His children to walk in truth.
May the Lord give you peace as you intercede, and may His will be done in each life you have lifted before Him.
