Key Verse: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 CSB)
Whenever you go to a restaurant for a meal, one of the first orders of business, after you sit down, is to take a menu from the server and figure out what it is you want to eat. Typically you look to see what your options are and then decide what you feel like having. Perhaps it’s a burger, a sandwich, chicken or steak. Or if you’re feeling super healthy, you just go with a salad. For many of us, we are so fortunate to live in a place where we actually have an option. We can choose what we want to eat, every time we get hungry.
In Matthew 5, Jesus uses the imagery of hunger and thirst to point us to the one thing that will truly satisfy. According to Jesus, if you really want to be filled, there is only one thing on the menu. It’s “righteousness”. Anything other than righteousness will leave you feeling empty and looking for more.
What exactly is Jesus talking about when He refers to a hunger and thirst for righteousness? The Bible uses the word in a number of different ways. One of the ways it’s used is to describe what God gives to us when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and enter into a relationship with Him. At the moment that we truly believe in Jesus and turn to Him, God makes us right in His eyes by assigning to us the righteousness of Jesus.
Have you experienced righteousness in this way? For a lot of people, this is why they feel so empty and unsatisfied in life. God has never declared them righteous. They have never turned to God, admitted their sin to Him, and received the gift of forgiveness from Him. Until that happens, they will never be truly satisfied. True fulfillment comes from knowing God through Jesus Christ.
Another way that the Bible uses the word righteousness is to refer to how we live our lives. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means to strongly desire to live in conformity to God’s will. It means to be someone who chooses to obey God in all things and to live a life without compromise.
Does this describe you? Jesus says that this kind of person is blessed. Blessed is the person who is desperate to obey Jesus Christ and to do God’s will. Anything other than full out obedience to God will leave us feeling empty and unfulfilled.
What’s on the menu today? Invite God today to increase in you a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Turn to Him today and ask Him to increase in you a longing and desire to know Him more and to obey all that He calls you to do. This is the only place where true fulfillment and satisfaction is found.
Prayer: God, only in knowing you and doing your will is true fulfillment found. As I seek you today, give me a heart that longs to follow you more. Help me to turn from anything else around me that I am looking to for fulfillment. Help me to taste and see that you are good (Psalm 34:8). Amen.
Author: Jonathan Miller has served in pastoral roles for more than 13 years in churches in Barrie, Oakville and Burlington, Ontario. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Prison Fellowship Canada, a ministry that mobilizes and equips local churches to engage in the restorative work of prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families, and victims across Canada. Jon holds degrees from McMaster University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife Adrienne have been married since 2004, and live in Burlington, Ontario with their 4 children. Jon’s greatest passion is to know Jesus and to see lives transformed by Him and for Him.
