"Blessed Are The Ones, Oh Blessed Are The Ones. Oh Blessed Are The Hungry Ones"
I belong to the group of people who would listen to the same song over and over AND OVER again if I happen to like it, and currently this is the song you would hear if you happen to walk past my room. I am challenged and broken by the truth this song speaks of... The past few months have been hard for me, spiritually... When the Lord calls you to do something that's hard to do and something that you don't want to do, and when you try to find excuses for not doing it and try to justify your grounds and when you are being stubborn as I was during the past few months, sometimes you can end up feeling dry....
A few months ago I wrote a post about loving people who don't love you back, people who are being judgmental about you and make you feel worthless. People whom you don't WANT to love.
Writing a blog post does not make it easy for you to do something. The past few months have been full of struggles of trying to love these people and giving up and trying to find excuses for not loving them and trying to convince my self that I know better about having a heart full of joy and peace more than the Lord does.
We all are trying to find peace that calms our souls and joy that makes our hearts sing, but something that most of us don't realize in this journey is that true peace and joy can ONLY be found in Jesus, and he can make our hearts overflow with this peace and joy if we allow him to, but we need to have hearts that are ready to be broken and cups that are willing to be dry and souls that are ready to be hungry so that they can be filled till they overflow.
But somewhere along the way I hardened my heart and decided that I will not try so hard to love people who would not love me back... and this decision did not make me joyous despite the popular notion we are constantly bombarded with today that 'letting go' and 'ignoring' things that you find hard to deal with or things that you do not want to deal with will make you feel free. In fact it did the exact opposite - I felt like my heart was turning into stone - it did not free me, it bounded me and took me deeper into my misery where I allowed myself to be drowned in self pity and self righteousness.
Looking back this phase I was in reminds me a lot about the Israelites living under the rule of king Pharaoh in bondage. When Moses goes and tells King Pharaoh to let God's people go and Pharaoh refuses and increases their workload instead, they were very quick to blame Moses, without realizing what the Lord had in store for them, because they were comfortable in their comfort zones, (although it would have not being so comfortable due to all the hard work they had to face) and did not see beyond that. They thought that the best thing was to put up with the 'normal' they were used to and to live with it, just like we feel like doing when we have to face hardships. They were afraid to be hungry and thirsty, afraid to sow seeds of toil and hardship - in order to gain what was beyond their sight, in order to reap beauty. But what comes next is truth we have to understand.
Moses tells his people this,
"... the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt..."
Deuteronomy 7:8
When they were too blind to see what the Lord was offering them and were not hungry for it, the Lord redeemed them and gave them the hunger and the thirst they lacked and when they were thirsty and then when they were hungry and thirsty for Him, He satisfied the and made their cups overflow.
So when you feel as if your heart is turning into stone or like 'letting it all go' or 'giving people what they deserve' instead of loving them unconditionally, pray to the Lord to reach out with his mighty hand and to redeem you out of the house of bondmen and ask Him to give you a hunger and a thirst for more of Him, because then He can fill your cup till it overflows and fill your heart with the peace and joy you have been looking for that will enable you to love others like He has loved us - even when we did not deserve it.
For Blessed are the Hungry Ones!
