A desire for goodness - Jesus in Sermon on Mount

God blesses you when you have a great
desire for goodness

Matthew 5:6

We can think about these verses as a journey. They are like a road that we walk on. Now the direction of the road changes. Until now it has been like a road that goes down. We have thought about poor in spirit. We have thought about sad feelings because of that, and about being humble.

Now the road begins to go up. We feel a great desire for goodness. It is what we want most of all. We are sad because we are poor in spirit. We know that we cannot help ourselves. But we have a great desire for God to make our spirits new. It is as if we are hungry for food. It is as if we want a drink of water. We know that we need something very much. This is our strongest desire.

Our desire for God

Jesus told a story about a son who left home. He spent all his father‘s money. When the son was hungry, he ate the food of pigs. When he was almost starving, he returned to his father. Sometimes God allows us to want him very much. Our desire might even seem painful, like hunger. We learn that we cannot help ourselves. We have to ask God for what we need.

Here in this verse is the good news of the grace of God, in just a few words. When we feel a great desire for God, we tell him. When we tell him, he supplies us.

You might ask, 'How does God supply us? How can he help us?' He helps us because Jesus died for us. The death of Jesus on the cross makes it possible. God is holy, but he can deal with sinful men, because of Jesus. God can give men the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke these words nearly three years before he died on the cross. But this is the only way that God can help us. We have to trust that he will forgive us because of the cross. We can have God‘s peace in our lives. [A person has God's peace in their life if God has forgiven that person's sins.]

The only way to have real joy and happiness

Notice here that the Christian looks for God‘s goodness. Other people might want happiness, joy, or experiences. By mistake, Christians also want these things. But the only way to have real joy and happiness is to want God‘s goodness. The real Christian knows this. This means that he must want to be holy. He must show this in his life. He must want to be free from every kind of sin in his life.

God's promise

This verse contains a promise. God will give us what we ask for. Once we trust Christ, God makes us righteous. On the cross, Christ dealt with our sin. Now God can give us the righteousness of Christ. At once, we have what we desire. It happens at once, but it continues to happen. As the Holy Spirit does His work in us, he changes us. This takes time, as we obey him. Sometimes we know about it, and sometimes we do not know. But God is making us like him. He will complete this when Jesus comes back again. We will be with God. We will have no sin.

There is a great promise at the end of the Book of Jude. Jude wrote that Jesus will introduce us to God. Then, we will be completely good and right inside. And everyone will be full of joy (Jude 24-25). But the promise is also true now: