October 2025 Reflections From Dave’s Corner Of The World

Last month I wrote about finding Joy, and how we find joy through Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”  The Greek word for “filled” means “an abundance”, or to “be satisfied”.  Can you imagine living life in a satisfied, filled, and joyful state?  I will say I’m much closer than I was before I first turned to the Lord, but I still let life’s challenges or fleshly desires get me down or distracted here and there.  But let’s look at this subject and what the Lord teaches, so we can gain and grow in it, and experience the joy and fullness that the Lord desires for us.

The Scriptures teach us that Jesus lived, and lives without sin or, to phrase it differently, He was and is perfect love. To expand this thought, He has been and is always filled, satisfied, and joyful.  That’s interesting, because on the night He was betrayed, He was sorrowful in the garden of Gethsemane- how does that add up?  Matthew 26:37 says, “And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.”

To be filled, satisfied, and joyful is a reflection of our spirit, heart, and soul’s relationship with the Lord; it is not a reaction to circumstances.  Jesus can be filled, satisfied, and joyful in His relationship with His Father, yet sorrowful and very heavy as he approached His crucifixion on the cross and taking the sins of the world upon Himself.  Here, with the Lord, to be sorrowful and heavy is not a shortcoming or spiritual weakness, but rather a holy grieving.  Jesus can be filled, satisfied, and full of joy in His relationship with the Father, while sorrowful and heavy in taking the sins of the world upon Himself and dying an excruciating death on the cross.

If you read Hebrews chapter 11:1- 35a, the saints of the Lord walked in faith, and this pleased the Lord.  From Hebrews 11:35b on, things did not go well for these saints.  They were tortured, mocked, imprisoned, killed and ill-treated.  Those were very hard and challenging times of persecution, but while the evil one can harm or kill the body and flesh, he has no power over the soul or Spirit!  The beauty of the testimony of these saints is that they were ALL faithful to the Lord to the end, regardless of their fate- even those that were terribly persecuted!  No doubt, those who are willing to lay down their lives for Jesus, have hungered and thirsted after righteousness and are filled and satisfied in the joy of the Lord, knowing there is a better reward in the future.  We will not get it all right, but we need to remember, that we can keep our eyes upon the Lord, hunger and thirst after righteousness and be filled even in challenging times; and we are best served to practice this before hard times come! 

It’s taken me years to develop a hunger and thirst after the Lord, and there is yet so much more growth needed.  It is too easy to get distracted by the things of the world and the flesh, but given how unsatisfying the world and flesh are, it’s a wonder how often we are drawn to it.  As I read about and observe Jesus, He ALWAYS thought, spoke and lived in His Father’s Spirit and heart.  Not once did He respond in the flesh or sin.  It reminds me of John 14:8-10,  “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”  Jesus saith unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

All Jesus ever lives is the Father.  All the Lord’s love is from the Father.  All Jesus ever speaks and teaches is of the Father.  The more we hunger and thirst after the Lord, the less of the world will be experienced and expressed by us.  Being filled and satisfied is not accomplished through things going our way, it’s accomplished in us as we focus on His way.  This is how Jesus lives.  Being in the Father and the Father in us: can’t beat that!  Then He dwells in us and He does the works.  Beats cleaning up my messes!  May the Lord give you a hunger and thirst for Himself, and may the Lord fill you with Himself and His love in a way that will sustain you through all that life sends your way!  Amen?  Amen!  Dave.