Hungering and Thirsting

Matt 5: 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

I was listening to J.Mac's series on this verse yesterday and he said something that I had not noticed when I read through it; "Jesus did not say that the people who possessed righteousness were those who were blessed, rather the ones who were blessed were those who were actually hungering and thirsting for righteousness, whether they possessed it or not was not the issue".

He alluded to the fact that if Jesus had called the possessors blessed the Pharisees would have been the blessed ones, but it is not the ones who possess but those who know that there is no way they could get even close to possessing are the ones who are blessed. Like Paul at the end of his ministry saying that he was the chiefest of sinners, as we go through our Christian walk were see our sin more and righteousness seems to be farther away.

It is also interesting that when Jesus makes this statement He automatically makes the converse statement; "Those who do not hunger and thirst for righteousness are NOT blessed".

We must examine ourselves to see if we are really hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness in our lives. Is this our sole aim? Are there things that draw us away from this, or is this the one thing that we can't live w/o? If this is not true in our lives we need to examine ourselves and see if we are truly saved.

God gives the hungering and thirsting and if we have it we should be thankful and if not we should be asking Him all the time to make us this way. He delights for us to ask and He delights in these kinds of requests.

Lord, I am undeserving of such grace and blessing. You lavish on me more than I ever deserve. You are kind and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and yet often I wander and am distracted by things that I know won't satisfy, yet if I truly was hungering and thirsting after righteousness I wouldn't be wandering. Give me a passion and love, the deepest hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Don't let me settle for lesser things, as holiness is what You have called me to. Make my heart glad in You.