Hungry? Thirsty? You’re Alive!

Hungry? Thirsty? You’re Alive! Matthew 5.6

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

My sweet Bennett1 seems to catch a lot of colds, which have the propensity to go into croup, and cause his appetite to dissipate. His mommy said to me yesterday, ‘since he is feeling better, he has his appetite back, and is filling out.’ Hunger is indeed an indication of health.

It is never a good sign when a person loses her desire to eat, and even a worse sign when she refuses liquids. I saw my sister steadily decline in recent weeks, and the strength ebb out of her as she wanted neither food nor drink. Hunger and thirst are God-given desires meant to sustain our bodies. Lack of hunger, lack of thirst are signs that life is at risk.

Our little dog Missy’s puppies are six days old now, and the way they latch on to her for sustenance is a wonder to behold! (The sounds in the podcasts—them rooting around, looking for Mama) I am charting their weights each day to make sure all five little dogs are thriving. Indeed, their hunger [as well as their access to the source of fulfillment—their mama]--is indeed the cause of their vitality. Where there is life, there is hunger.

And the same thing is true in our relationship with God … when at once we enter into relationship with Christ--if it is real and true--therein grows a desire to honor him, and not to disappoint him. I shall never forget the night I sat across my kitchen table from a beautiful high school girl, brand new to faith, who asked me to please give her a list of sins, so that she could be certain to avoid them so she was not hurting God. Her earnestness toward virtue was compelling.

Once again, these principles Jesus is describing as the state of blessedness are charged to the disciple of Jesus Christ—not to the uninitiated, not to those who do not claim his name. And each beatitude builds out of and upon the preceding ones. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Filled? Hmmm… translation, please. I understand that if my Christian faith is sincere, I will desire to live righteously, right? Yes, that’s it. But then, what does it mean I ‘will be filled’? Satisfied. . . nay—more than satisfied, but satiated. This is a subject near and dear to my heart because so many of us are grasping for ‘that something’ that will complete us, ‘that something’ that will bring us contentment. All of us in life are in pursuit of something that will bring us satisfaction. Whatever it is that we think will bring that satisfaction, that is the thing we pursue – often, it is the thing about which we are most passionate, and sometimes we have even let consume us.

Yet, Jesus says, that when we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled—we will be satiated, we will know contentment. Amazing . . . as we long for contentment in a world that constantly leaves us wanting

Prayer: “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.”2 Amen.

I pray that you’re alive . . . I pray that you’re alive in your faith in Jesus Christ, and if you are, if I am, then we surely will hunger and thirst after righteousness!
Christine

1 – Bennett is my 18-month-old grandson

2 - A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

3 – On being ‘filled’, can you say this along with the apostle Paul?

Philippians 4.11-13

4 – Is this your heart—from Psalm 42.1? “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.”

5 – What do you long to satisfy you? Would you say that you are (ever) satiated?