Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matthew 5: 6)
People have hunger for different things. Some for food, some for sex, some for power, some for money, some for travel, some for fame, etc.
What do you have hunger for, that you are willing and ready to risk your life for, no matter the cost and the consequences? This is the heart of Jesus' message, "Happy are those who hunger and thirst (that's, whose heart's desire) is for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
To hunger and thirst in the biblical sense means to have a yearning, a strong urge, a burning desire within you for something just like to be hungry for food or thirsty for water in the natural sense. Your body chemistry is set on a survival mood, and you would do just anything to fill that hunger or thirst.
Righteousness in this context simply means the right and upright things - acts or deeds - that please God, that bring Him pleasure or delight. And this has to do with His will.
God seeks for His will to be done on earth, in our lives, and society as it's done in Heaven, His dwelling place.
The opposite of His will doesn't bring God pleasure or delight, rather it makes Him angry, or He may tolerate it for a time till His simmering anger boils over.
Jesus is a man who sought to completely do the will of God. And all His acts and deeds were geared towards that. No wonder He pleased the Father. He was so much on fire for God to see people do God's will. When He confronted the Jews in the temple for merchandising, it was because the zeal for God's will has consumed Him (John 2: 13 -17). He went to John to baptize Him because He was thirsty for righteousness. (Matth 3: 15). It was said of Him, "I have come to this world to do your will. O God (Heb 10: 7).
Based on this fact, Apostle Paul exhorts all Christians not to be fools, but to know, understand, and seek what the will of God is, and to do it (Eph 5: 17). That goes for you and I as Christians.
Is this the burning desire in you? Do you have this passion for God?
Where is your hunger and thirst placed, for food or for God, for your own will or that of God?
Our modern preachers called hunger for God, a heart for God. Do you have it? Or you have exchange it for other things?. I can assure you that those things will never satisfy your longing soul, because they are empty and futile. But if your hunger is for the will of God, if your heart is for pleasing God, then you are blessed, says Jesus.
So as you go through the day and live life, develop a heart for God, have a burning desire to do God's will and a passion to please Him and God will come through to you. May a new and a fresh hunger arise in you now and cause you to be on fire for righteousness in Jesus name. Amen
Shalom, life and grace to you
Moving people onto God's purposes
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