Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness

The Bible is full of word pictures. Each one grabs out attention to show us God's truth in a way that we could never learn it from words alone. We all know what it is to be hungry and to be thirsty. We have a joke around our house that I am always hungry. The problem is that it is not a joke. I am always hungry. I am the grandson of a man who said, "If you cut a pie more than once, you ruin it." I feel the same way, so I just had to stop eating pie. For years I took powerful decongestant pills, so I was constantly thirsty. I still drink more than most people. It is hard for me to go very long without some water or something liquid. I can relate to the effects hungering and thirsting. The main thing I want to do in that case is to get something to feed my hunger or to quench my thirst. It is hard to think of anything else until I do.

That is why Jesus tells us we are blessed if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We will not let our minds think of anything else until we have achieved it. If we keep yearning for it, we will be filled with it by God's blessing on our lives. To live in righteousness is the best life possible. We can have that life if we hunger for it and thirst for it day after day just like we do our food and drink. What a marvelous truth, and what a word picture for all of us to consider. I pray that each of us will live a life that is filled up with what God has for us.

Tomorrow, I intend to read II Kings 21-23.