Unshackled Moments ~ August 14~ How Hungry Are We?

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

~ Matthew 5: 6

This ties in with the verse before it about the meek inheriting the earth because once again it's a verse that describes something more than it may seem. We may see that verse and think craving. I hunger and thirst for righteousness like I have a serious hunger for a root beer ice cream float. But unless you're talking about the cravings of a pregnant woman that's just not serious enough. Now a pregnant woman with cravings is going to do whatever it takes, wake her husband and send him to a store two towns over in the middle of the night to find what she's hungry for. Nothing else will do, and she won't let it go until she's satisfied. The cravings, her hunger is her body's way of trying to naturally get certain things she's lacking due to the pregnancy. It's more than a hankering, it's a need.

We say that fighter's who train well for a championship fight were hungry for it. It becomes their passion. They pursue it above all other things. They tear themselves down to be built back up so that they can be at peak performance for the fight.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to recognize the need for it, to crave it to such an extent that you will pursue it above all else. It consumes your thoughts and drives your dreams. It is the prize that you keep your eye on. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness that way we can't stand to fast. We have a promise that we will be filled. One day we will be perfectly righteous, but until then, we can taste it today by submitting our will for His and putting relationship with Him above everything else. It is only by His power and grace that we can be made righteous, which by the way simply means innocent and right and good through and through.