What Does It Mean To Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness

This fourth installment of the beatitude series delves into the beatitude recorded in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” As mentioned in the previous articles, each beatitude builds on the previous in a logical sequence.

In the first beatitude, we learn that every believer’s journey starts with the acknowledgment of our spiritual poverty and our need for God. Following this realization, we begin a quest to seek Him.

When we encounter God, His light illuminates our sinful nature, prompting us to experience a time of mourning and shame as we recognize His righteousness. This process is highlighted in the second beatitude.

Through His Son, Jesus, God invites us into His Kingdom to accomplish His divine purpose. As we come to understand the greatness of God during this journey, we are inspired to embrace humility, allowing His power and wisdom to shine through us. This embodies the essence of the third beatitude.

It was explained that true humility involves letting God’s will flow through us without interruption. This understanding leads us to the fourth beatitude, where believers develop a deep hunger and thirst for righteousness.

1. What does it mean to Hunger and Thirst For Righteousness?

This longing represents a profound yearning for the righteousness, values, and order of heaven to be realized in our physical world. Remember that in the third beatitude, the individual has embraced humility, signifying a surrender of their personal power and will to God. Consequently, the power they now seek is the divine power of God to manifest through their lives.

In the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus instructed his disciples on how to pray, one key request was, “Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This profound aspiration reflects a desire for God’s will to manifest in every aspect of our lives, as our own will has been humbled and submitted to the divine will of God.

The leper, in Matthew 8:2 asked Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, make me clean.” And Jesus’ response was, “I am willing.” This simply means Jesus was willing to change a situation of disorder into the divine order and righteousness of God.

The order of heaven is that there is no sickness, no pain and no death (Revelations 21:1-4). So when we come to God, our desire becomes to to bring God’s perfect order here on earth, healing the sick, giving wisdom, revival back to life and more.

2. How Are We Filled When We Hunger And Thirst?

The disciples traveled with Jesus for months, observing his incredible works and miracles. Jesus had entrusted them with the mission to perform those same works and even greater ones, as he was returning to the Father. To fulfill this sacred calling, they required divine empowerment to manifest God’s righteousness and order on earth.

This beatitude assures us that those who earnestly long for God’s righteousness and justice will be fulfilled. The disciples abandoned everything, demonstrating their humility, to follow Jesus. After His death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended and filled them with His presence.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is an essential element in fulfilling the righteousness of God. Once the Holy Spirit arrived, the disciples began preaching and sharing the Good News, healing the sick, and performing many other miraculous acts.

3. How Are We Blessed When We Hunger And Thirst?

The blessing lies in the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in us so that we may accomplish God’s righteousness. We are blessed to carry our the will of God here on earth and to become mirror images Jesus Christ. To be blessed means to be envied, spiritually prosperous, forgiven and to be admired. This is what happened when Peter and John healed the crippled beggar by the temple.

This miraculous wonder caused admiration and envy to the onlookers, such that many began to believe in Christ as the Son of God. This is what it means to be blessed, the ultimate goal is that all men should fear God and give Him all praise and glory.

4. Final Remarks

Psalm 42:1-2, speaks of this desire, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you O God. I thirst for God, the living God.” Like the Samaritan woman at the well, she also conveyed a desire and expectation of Jesus Christ in John 4:25. And Jesus disclosed to her that he is indeed the Messiah she’s been expecting. Right at the spot, her hunger and thirst for for God was fulfilled and she went on to spread the word of her encounter with Jesus.

Over time, I have encountered numerous questions that led me to seek God’s guidance for wisdom and understanding. Driven by profound curiosity, I have explored the scriptures, and He has unveiled countless truths to me, some of which I have documented and shared on this website. Each time I have posed a question to Him, He has graciously responded, granting me the wisdom needed to deepen my understanding of His nature and His ways.

Dear reader, recognize that the more God fills our hearts, the greater our desire for Him should become. We must never stifle the Holy Spirit; instead, our thirst for God stretches into eternity. He has blessed us with the Holy Spirit, who fills us and creates a fresh, bubbling spring of water that lasts forever (John 4:14). This assures us that we will never thirst for Him again, as He remains with us always, both now and for all eternity.