Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6
When we seek the LORD driven by hunger and thirst, we have the assurance of being filled with righteousness. What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? It begins with the recognition that righteousness is in God and not us. But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. [Isaiah 64:6]
Right standing with God can only be found in Him, so we hunger and thirst for Him and His righteousness. Therefore, we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all that we need is added unto those who seek the righteousness of God. The depth of the love of God towards us is made manifest in 2 Corinthians 5:21; For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Yet we thirst for Him as David expresses in Psalm 42 verses 1 and 2 — As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Our thirst for God springs up from our soul, as we seek to be in the presence of the living God. There is a deep longing and even a groaning in the earth to realize the adoption, which places us in the family of God. This groaning can be felt by those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Hunger and thirst together, that is spiritual, also seeks to satisfy the soul according to Isaiah 55:1-2; “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Material things that can be bought with money cannot satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul. Life itself is bound and released from the soul, where God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam. Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? If you do, then the promise of God to you, is that you shall be filled with His righteousness. Hear the word of the Lord in the gospel of John chapter 6, verse 35 — And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Receive your fillings of righteousness today according to the promise given to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Maranatha
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