“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” Matthew 5:6. Using our natural desire for daily food and water, Jesus portrays a person that manifests a strong desire, yes even craving, for righteousness (“uprightness and right standing with God)” Amplified Bible. We were created with this instinct within us, however, we like ancient civilizations became covered over with soil, dust, and debris, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” 1 John 2:16; to understand what it was like, archaeologists must excavate and uncover the ruins, so sin and the fallen desires of our flesh have obscured that spiritual desire, the longing and craving is still there but sin and the fallen desires of our flesh cause us to think we can satisfy it with strange water “In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water” Psalm 63:1. It is time to take a lesson from Isaac in Genesis 26:15, 18-19. After Abraham had dug wells for satisfying water, the Philistines stopped them up, but “Isaac dug again the wells of water they had dug in the days of Abraham his father” There is a cry within your heart that is expressed by the Psalmist in 84:2 “My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” We must recognize this hungering cry that will never be satisfied with anything less than living water from the wells of God, (see John 4:14). We must come to the place the Psalmist did in 42:1 when he said “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.” The promise to all that respond to the Holy Spirit and pursue God, hungering and thirsting for His righteousness is “…they shall be filled” Matthew 5:6. Jeremiah 29:13-14 echoes the same truth “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord”. Righteousness is not an outer thing we put on; it is an infilling that produces an overflow.
Hungry
By Rose Hill
Happy are you if you hunger and thirst,
And always put your Savior first.
For if you refuse to drift with the tide,
You will surely always be satisfied.
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.