Matthew 5:3-5 (NIV)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Matthew 5:6 (NCV)
Those who want to do right more than anything else are happy, because God will fully satisfy them.
Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)
My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. – C.S. Lewis
Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes 12:12 (NIV)
…Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NIV)
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:17-18 (NIV)
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 (NIV)
Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. 11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?
Ecclesiastes 4:8 (NIV)
There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
1 Kings 11:3 (NIV)
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines…
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG)
The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that’s it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil.
“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” – St. Augustine
Proverbs 21:21 (NIV)
Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
We FILL UP on the WRONG things.
SIN never SATISFIES.
Hebrews 11:25 (NIV)
(Moses) chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Isaiah 55:1-2 (NCV)
The LORD says, “All you who are thirsty, come and drink. Those of you who do not have money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on something that is not real food? Why work for something that doesn’t really satisfy you? Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies.”
We’ve never EXPERIENCED the GOODNESS of God.
Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Ephesians 3:18-19 (NIV)
I pray that you… may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Righteousness is…
Right STANDING with God.
Romans 3:25 (NLT)
We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.
Romans 5:9-11 (NLT)
And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
We are made RIGHT with God by coming into RELATIONSHIP with God.
Right LIVING on EARTH.
Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
We have right living on earth by PURSUING the LIFESTYLE that God intends.
Proverbs 12:28 (NIV)
In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.
John 4:10-13 (NIV)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
“You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.” – Jesus, John 4:26 (MSG)