I’ve tried dieting. I’ve even tried counting calories or trying to lose weight. It seems like the harder you try, the more obstacles you face. It seems like it’s a never-ending battle for me.
Many Muslims around the world are fasting for Ramadan. During the month, they abstain from both food and water from sunrise to sunset (they can feast at night). I have written posts about all the rules and regulations in the past (here, here, and here) In my former life as a Muslim, I tried to keep the fasts but I came up with many excuses to be excused from them. None of the excuses were good enough- a “good” Muslim will do their best to ensure that they fast for the 30 day timeframe.
I think it was a mental exercise in discipline for me. At the end of the day, I just didn’t understand why I had to fulfill this particular requirement since I could just do good works to make up for my lack of desire to abstain from eating. Of course, I was admonished by others for having this terrible attitude!
When Jesus Christ saved me in 2007, I began to read the Bible. It was the beautiful Gospel of Matthew that caught my attention. In Matthew 5:6, Jesus Christ says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.” I spent time thinking about this verse because I had never heard anything like this before.
Over 1.6 billion Muslims around the world— even in your own neighborhood hunger and thirst physically… but do they hunger and thirst for righteousness?
If you ask them, I would like to believe that they would say yes.
The truth is that apart from Christ, we have no righteousness of our own (Isaiah 59:1-17 and Romans 3). Our good deeds are “like filthy rags” according to the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6). The filthy rags are also translated as “polluted garments” that refer to a woman’s menstrual cloths. This is very significant because in Islam, it is “haram” or sinful for women to pray or fast when bleeding (see islamqa.info/en/answers/70438/rulings-on-menstruation). So, to read that my good deeds are just as worthless as me praying to Allah during a time of being spiritually unclean was eye opening.
In other words, it doesn’t matter what works you do to try to get on Allah’s good side. The Bible is very clear.
Only God is HOLY
Man cannot enter Heaven or be in the presence of God on his own works. Man (or woman) are not righteous. We are mired deep in sin.
So what can we do?
If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, look no further than Christ. We Christians say that we are righteous only through faith- – and even that faith we have was given to us by God. Isaiah 61:10 states “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…
In the Gospel of John (4:14), Jesus states “But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
In John 6:48, Jesus states “I am the bread of life.”
If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, look to Christ. Only He can give us spiritual satisfaction and life eternal. Amen.