May 2

Those Who Hunger and Thirst

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
—Matthew 5:6

Scripture reading: Psalm 42

Meet the conditions, and God will fulfill His Word to you. Note that the verse says, “shall be filled.” The Spirit of God is crying, “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat” (Isa. 55:1). The Spirit of God will take the things of Christ and show them to you so that you may have a longing for Christ in His fullness, and when there is that longing, God will not fail to fill you.

See the crowd of worshippers who have come up to the feast. They are going away utterly dissatisfied, but on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus will stand and cry out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

Jesus knew that they were going away without the living water, and so He directed them to the true source of supply. Are you thirsty today? The living Christ still invites you to Himself, and I want to testify that He still satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry with good things.

In Switzerland, I learned of a man who met with a particular congregation. He attended their various meetings, and one morning at their Communion service, he arose and said, “Brothers, we have the Word, and I feel that we are living very much in the letter of it, but there is a hunger and thirst in my soul for something deeper, something more real than we have, and I cannot rest until I enter into it.” The next Sunday this brother rose again and said, “We are all so poor here, there is no life in this assembly, and my heart is hungry for reality.” He did this for several weeks until it got on the nerves of these people, and they protested, “Sands, you are making us all miserable; you are spoiling our meetings. There is only one thing for you to do, and that is to clear out.”

He went out of the meeting in a very sad condition. As he stood outside, one of his children asked him what was the matter, and he said, “To think that they should turn me out from their midst for being hungry and thirsty for more of God!” I did not know anything more of this situation until afterward.

Days later, someone rushed up to Sands and said, “There is a man over here from England, and he is speaking about tongues and healing.” Sands said, “I’ll fix him. I’ll go to the meeting and sit right up in the front and challenge him with the Scriptures. I’ll dare him to preach these things in Switzerland. I’ll publicly denounce

him.” So he came to the meetings. There he sat. He was so hungry and thirsty that he drank in every word that was said. His opposition soon petered out. The first morning he said to a friend, “This is what I want.” He drank and drank of the Spirit. After three weeks he said, “God will have to do something new or I‘ll burst.” He breathed in God, and the Lord filled him to such an extent that he spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. Sands is now preaching and is in charge of a new Pentecostal assembly.

God is making people hungry and thirsty after His best. And everywhere He is filling the hungry and giving them what the disciples received at the very beginning. Are you hungry? If you are, God promises that you will be filled.

Thought for today: If you ever see a “shall” in the Bible, make it yours.

Smith Wigglesworth Devotional: 365 Day Devotional
By Whitaker House

Smith Wigglesworth was a man who took God at his word, and God used his faith as a model for others. Explore these daily truths from Scripture and the writings of the Apostle of Faith, and you’ll quench your spiritual thirst, conquer defeating fears, be an effective soul winner, and see impossibilities turn into realities. 558 pages.

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Smith Wigglesworth Devotional