The Only Way to Happiness by John MacArthur

Author:John MacArthur [MacArthur, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-57567-595-4
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 1998-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M TRULY THIRSTING

AND HUNGERING AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS?

Are you satisfied with yourself? The Puritans used to say, “He has the most need of righteousness who least wants it.” Do you find yourself in Romans 7 all the time, saying, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Or are you so self-righteous that you think everybody else is wrong and you’re right? If there is in you any sense of self-satisfaction, I wonder whether you know what it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Do you feel a constant pain of always falling short? That’s a symptom of one who seeks God’s way.

Does anything external satisfy you? Do you find that things have an influence on how you feel? Do you fill your appetite with the wrong stuff and then lose that appetite? A hunger for righteousness will be satisfied with nothing else.

Do you have a great appetite for the Word of God? The rules, the obedience of which brings about righteousness, are in His Word. Jeremiah said, “Your words were found and I ate them” (Jeremiah 15:16). If you’re hungering and thirsting after righteousness, you will have such an appetite for the Word that you will devour it. If you’re not hungering and thirsting after righteousness, maybe you are a kingdom child who’s being sinful. Or maybe you’re not a child of the kingdom at all. Either way, there is a forfeiting of happiness.

Are the things of God sweet to you? Proverbs 27:7 says, “To a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.” I can recognize somebody who is seeking righteousness, because when God brings devastation into his life, he is filled and satisfied. He receives it of God, even though it’s painful. Some people can rejoice only when good things happen. When tough things happen, they don’t like it. They are not hungering and thirsting; they are merely chasing happiness.

Thomas Watson said, “The one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness can feed on the myrrh of the gospel as well as the honey.”5 I can tell you from personal experience, trials can be as sweet as the good times because God is in them and is working His purposes, making us more righteous.

Is your hunger and thirst unconditional? Remember the rich young ruler who told Jesus Christ that he wanted to know how to enter the kingdom, but he wasn’t willing to give up his possessions? His hunger was conditional, and he was never filled. What about you? Do you say, “I want Christ and my sin. Christ and my pride. Christ and my illicit relationship. Christ and my cheating. Christ and my lying. Christ and my covetousness. Christ and my materialism. Christ and, Christ and…” ?

A hungry man does not want food and a new suit. A thirsty man does not want water and a new pair of shoes. They just want food and water. Psalm 119:20 says, “My soul is crushed with longing after Your ordinances at all times.

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