Meditate on Morality
Matt. 5:6
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Bob Bonebrake recalls after church his brother and sister would persuade their father to buy sodas and ice cream. One Sunday dad protested. “Where does it say you kids should always get something to eat and drink after church?” They pipped up, “In the Bible, Ii says ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.’”
Mother Teresa observed during one of her visits to America, “In India people are dying of physical starvation; in America people are dying of emotional starvation”
Why are so many of us constantly restless in the pursuit of something more? Something is missing even when things are going well for us. What is it that we hunger and thirst for? These words come from a poverty-stricken culture where people in the desert area know what dying of thirst means; we do not. They don't care how they look or whether they have shoes, or even if they own a house. The basics for survival are food and water.
In that context Jesus tells the crowd, “Blessed are they who have that desire and ambition for righteousness, the desire to do what is right and doing what God would have us to do. Do we want goodness as much as a starving man wants food? Do we want God's righteousness as much as a thirsty man wants water?
Notice the blessed man is not necessarily the one who achieves goodness or righteousness but the one who longs for it with all of his heart in spite of his failures and fallings. Blessed are they who have that desire and ambition for righteousness, the desire to do what is right and doing what God would have us to do.
King David desired more than anything to build a temple for God, but it was not in God's will. Yet, David was blessed because that wish was his desire to honor God. When people hunger Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” When they thirsted Jesus said, “I am the living water.”
What would happen if our ambition were to serve God? What would happen at work, school, and community if we promoted righteousness? Many would surely be offended. There were many who were religious but did not hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. They had gone to synagogues. They had tithed their possessions. They offered prayers and even fasted regularly. Yet the passion, the hunger, the thirst of their lives was not for righteousness. Therefore, they will not be satisfied either in this age nor in the age to come.
The sermon on the mount ends in Matt. 7:22-23 with these words “On that day many will say to me Lord, Lord we did not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them I never knew you; depart from me you evil doers”
Could it be one of the reasons the grass is greener on the other side is that your life is not devoted to the central pursuit of righteousness but to the pursuit of other things?
There are many of you that sense your soul is hungry and your heart is thirsty. You feel an insatiable longing for something. The Spirit of God beckons you, but you turn away for other pursuits and interests.
Deep and lasting satisfaction for our souls comes from a relationship with God, who calls us to Himself. Trust Him to reveal to you this blessed life.
