Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst For Righteousness
...for they will be filled.
Matthew 5:7
Have you ever been hungry? I mean really, really hungry, where your stomach won’t leave you alone. I have participated in the Thirty Hour Famine several times – it’s an event that World Vision does to raise awareness and funds for world hunger. Part of the event is going without food for (you guessed it) thirty hours. One year when we were doing it, we took a group of homeless kids to Cosi Museum in Columbus. Each of the homeless kids was given some money to spent, and I remember one of them bought pizza… and made one of our kids, who was fasting, hold the pizza and carry it around all afternoon.
If you’ve gone without food for a significant amount of time, you know what it’s like to be hungry. But what about when you are hungry for something specific, and nothing else will do? There are times when I have a few of that kind of cravings – El Famous Burrito is one such craving, and there’s a Thai restaurant in Lima I really like.
I remember once when Tara and I went up to Lima to eat at that restaurant. I could already taste the curry. We could have gone to any restaurant we wanted, and we both had our hearts set on Thai. We got there, only to find that it wasn’t open on Mondays (or whatever day it was). We were crushed. We ended up eating somewhere else, but it wasn’t what we really, really wanted.
If you get cravings, you know what it’s like; you really won’t be satisfied by anything else.
Unfortunately, we’re often impulse eaters. We’re on the road and we’re hungry, so we stop at McDonalds, and has anyone here seen Supersize Me? Don’t get me wrong; I like McDonalds. But although they serve some healthy choices, those really aren’t why we go there, are they? We want the fries and the grease. We’re hungry so we fill ourselves with junk food.
This can be true of our spiritual lives as well. God created us to be in relationship with him. There is within each one of us what’s been called a “God shaped hole” – a longing that can only be filled by God himself. We can try to fill this hunger any way we choose – this is one reason that drug and alcohol abuse are rampant as people attempt to self-medicate. We try to fill the hole all sorts of ways, and none of them work. Only a right relationship with God will actually satisfy.
This is what this beatitude is all about – hungering and thirsting after the one thing that will satisfy, a craving for much more than food. Back in Matthew 4, the devil tempted Jesus. He was in the wilderness forty days, and he was hungry. Do you remember his first temptation? The devil tempted him to turn stones into bread. But Jesus told him, “No – One doesn’t live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Obedience to every word that comes from the mouth of God is righteousness – a right relationship with God, and, as Jesus states here, the reward is that you will be filled.
God, however, won’t starve you – he doesn’t withhold his side of the relationship. Not from anyone. But unfortunately, many choose not to eat. We’ve snacked so much that we’re just not hungry. What have we snacked on? We’ve snacked on little sins. We’ve snacked on busy-ness. We’ve snacked on money. We’ve snacked on our self-sufficiency. We’ve had some great-tasting snacks like sports and family, things that are good in themselves, but taken in too great a measure can result in us losing sight of our relationship with God.
Are you really hungry for that right relationship with God? Is it more important than food? Is it more important than drink? If so, that’s awesome!! But if not, just how do you work up an appetite for righteousness?
I believe that one way we can work up that appetite by working for justice. My right relationship with God isn’t just between me and God – it’s also between me and my neighbor, and it’s between us – as a community of faith – and God. Are we actively working toward that end?
We can work up that appetite by sharing Jesus Christ with those who don’t yet know him. By acting as God’s hands and feet, by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us to draw others into that right relationship with God, we work up a good appetite for the only meal that will satisfy our hunger.
We work up that appetite by devouring the Word of God – and obeying it. If we continue to do this, we’ll continue to work up a good appetite for a right relationship with Him… and we will be filled.
Matthew 5:7
Have you ever been hungry? I mean really, really hungry, where your stomach won’t leave you alone. I have participated in the Thirty Hour Famine several times – it’s an event that World Vision does to raise awareness and funds for world hunger. Part of the event is going without food for (you guessed it) thirty hours. One year when we were doing it, we took a group of homeless kids to Cosi Museum in Columbus. Each of the homeless kids was given some money to spent, and I remember one of them bought pizza… and made one of our kids, who was fasting, hold the pizza and carry it around all afternoon.
If you’ve gone without food for a significant amount of time, you know what it’s like to be hungry. But what about when you are hungry for something specific, and nothing else will do? There are times when I have a few of that kind of cravings – El Famous Burrito is one such craving, and there’s a Thai restaurant in Lima I really like.
I remember once when Tara and I went up to Lima to eat at that restaurant. I could already taste the curry. We could have gone to any restaurant we wanted, and we both had our hearts set on Thai. We got there, only to find that it wasn’t open on Mondays (or whatever day it was). We were crushed. We ended up eating somewhere else, but it wasn’t what we really, really wanted.
If you get cravings, you know what it’s like; you really won’t be satisfied by anything else.
Unfortunately, we’re often impulse eaters. We’re on the road and we’re hungry, so we stop at McDonalds, and has anyone here seen Supersize Me? Don’t get me wrong; I like McDonalds. But although they serve some healthy choices, those really aren’t why we go there, are they? We want the fries and the grease. We’re hungry so we fill ourselves with junk food.
This can be true of our spiritual lives as well. God created us to be in relationship with him. There is within each one of us what’s been called a “God shaped hole” – a longing that can only be filled by God himself. We can try to fill this hunger any way we choose – this is one reason that drug and alcohol abuse are rampant as people attempt to self-medicate. We try to fill the hole all sorts of ways, and none of them work. Only a right relationship with God will actually satisfy.
This is what this beatitude is all about – hungering and thirsting after the one thing that will satisfy, a craving for much more than food. Back in Matthew 4, the devil tempted Jesus. He was in the wilderness forty days, and he was hungry. Do you remember his first temptation? The devil tempted him to turn stones into bread. But Jesus told him, “No – One doesn’t live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Obedience to every word that comes from the mouth of God is righteousness – a right relationship with God, and, as Jesus states here, the reward is that you will be filled.
God, however, won’t starve you – he doesn’t withhold his side of the relationship. Not from anyone. But unfortunately, many choose not to eat. We’ve snacked so much that we’re just not hungry. What have we snacked on? We’ve snacked on little sins. We’ve snacked on busy-ness. We’ve snacked on money. We’ve snacked on our self-sufficiency. We’ve had some great-tasting snacks like sports and family, things that are good in themselves, but taken in too great a measure can result in us losing sight of our relationship with God.
Are you really hungry for that right relationship with God? Is it more important than food? Is it more important than drink? If so, that’s awesome!! But if not, just how do you work up an appetite for righteousness?
I believe that one way we can work up that appetite by working for justice. My right relationship with God isn’t just between me and God – it’s also between me and my neighbor, and it’s between us – as a community of faith – and God. Are we actively working toward that end?
We can work up that appetite by sharing Jesus Christ with those who don’t yet know him. By acting as God’s hands and feet, by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us to draw others into that right relationship with God, we work up a good appetite for the only meal that will satisfy our hunger.
We work up that appetite by devouring the Word of God – and obeying it. If we continue to do this, we’ll continue to work up a good appetite for a right relationship with Him… and we will be filled.
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