Blessed are...

Water for the Thirsty

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

When all we can do is cry for mercy, we are ready to receive it. To be poor in spirit is to accept the justice of God’s indictment, and that our only plea must be the merits of our Savior. Salvation is as free as it is undeserved. The Kingdom of heaven is not for the Pharisees, for those who feel that they are entitled to it. The Kingdom of heaven is for the outcast and the lowly, for those who would not, for one minute, imagine that they could ever be made welcome there.

God always had a concern for the poor and needy. According to Isaiah, God saw how they searched for water, but none was to be found. “Their tongues were parched with thirst.”[1] In mercy, the helper of Israel came to them, and answered their cries. He did not forsake them, instead He made “rivers flow on barren heights… springs within the valleys.” God promised, “I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.”[2]

It is not hard to see how God’s care for His Covenant people should be understood in a spiritual sense. Like the poor and needy in a barren place, we are thirsty for the living God. We need the refreshment of His Word if we are to grow and thrive. We need to drink of the Water of Life, which only Christ can give, if we are to be saved.[3] Without Him, we are lost; with Him, we know the blessing of belonging to the Kingdom of heaven.




Living God,
You are the source of all good, and of life itself.
Without You my life would be barren and dry, there would be no life in me.
But with You there is an abundance that overflows.
May I drink forever of Your life-giving water.
Forever, I will be satisfied.
In the name of Christ.
Amen.



[1] Isaiah 41:17
[2] Isaiah 41:18
[3] John 4:13-14