Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.- Matthew 5:6
What does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness? I have struggled with this. Many times, I find myself living in "Vanity Fair" as Christian did in Pilgrim's Progress. Living in this world isn't easy when you're trying to seek after God. I have found, as someone who didn't grow up with television, and now has more access, exposure to certain TV shows and movies day after day can eat away at your sensitivity, until you find yourself far from the place of seeking God in which you used to find it easy to stay.
Lysa TerKeurst, in her book Embraced, devotes a section to her struggle with food. What it all came down to, she discovered, was not necessarily choosing one type of food over another, but really hungering for God in such away that food is no longer an idol.
So, how do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Bible columnist Carey Kinsolving words it this way: "God will satisfy your deepest needs if you look to Him for fulfillment." He also points out that Jesus upset the religious order of that time period by awakening in people a thirst to know God and follow Him, rather than simply following a set of rules. That is what this verse, and the gospel, are all about- knowing God and seeking Him with all of one's heart.
It's like the story of the man who was searching for something, anything, to fill the "hole" inside of him. Only when he was on his back in a prison cell did he realize what that something was- God.
I am far from perfect, but I pray that God renews in me the desire to follow and seek Him wholeheartedly. That is one desire that we can know will never go unfulfilled.
