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Matthew 5:6 (Psalm 34; Psalm 42; Romans 4:13-25)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

When was the last time you were hungry? I don‘t mean that you needed a snack. I mean that you genuinely were starving. When the pain in your stomach was threatening to take over your body and stage a coup until you stopped and nourished it? When was the last time you needed a drink of water desperately?

For many of us, we very rarely get to that point. Unless it is a financial issue, time is typically not an issue for eating and drinking. Why? Some would argue it is because our bodies communicate needs and our mind understands and responds. Others would say that it has to do with our inability to say no to ourselves and much like a garden or lawn, we know what it’s going to take to make sure that we are cared for. I would argue it’s because where our heart is, there our mind will be as well.

In Jesus‘ greatest sermon, he indicated that people were Happy when righteousness was what they craved. But, the craving is not simply a preference or a situational desire. Rather it is quite literally a “hungering and thirsting” for righteousness. Working with the previous beatitudes, Jesus calls attention to the human desire for fulfillment and God’s provision for those desires. This hungering and thirsting for righteousness is both a personal and corporate discipline. It is the hunger for righteousness that fuels a person to throw himself at the feet of Jesus to be filled. In her thirst for that which only God can grant, the follower of Christ simply postures herself to be available for His outpouring of living water.

But that is really the point. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is an intentional pursuit. The picture we have is of a person who is quite literally starving for more of God. It is not that they do not currently possess righteousness or that they are deficient in some way. Rather it is the presence of righteousness within her that pushes her to seek it all the more. It is quite insatiable. They are hungering and thirsting for it because they have tasted the Lord and saw that He is good. And because of their intentional pursuit of his righteousness, He promises to fill them with it. It is their soul or heart that so longs for righteousness and where the heart is the mind will be also.

In what ways does your heart call to be filled with righteousness? (random acts of kindness, intentional pursuit of God through the study of His word, finding a place to serve in a your local church, etc.)

In what ways do you protect yourself from spiritual anemia? Why should you?