This week the focus in on verse 6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." WOW! The promise is great, "I will be filled".
The challenge, as in each of the beatitudes, is to live out the preceding phrase, "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness".
I have to admit those words are very challenging for me. I look at my life and I ask myself the tough question: "Do I really hunger and thirst for righteousness?" I mean, the image that Jesus gives is one that really suggests a craving, a yearning, a desperation for righteousness; it's not about wanting righteousness, but about my own spiritual survival. That's the image Jesus gives.
The Psalmist agreed, "“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?” Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV)
It's funny, I've read these verses thousands of times and I never noticed the last part of verse two ends in a question. "When can I go and stand before Him?" The Psalmist knew he was thirsty for God, but he wanted it so bad he said, "When can I go? Come on let's go, I'm eager to get there."
That's the challenge on the spiritual journey. Not only realizing our need for Jesus, but desiring Him. Longing for Him. Being desperate for that relationship.
The beatitude ends with Jesus saying, "you shall be filled." The promise of God to us is that if we seek him we shall find him, when we seek him with all our heart.
Let's take comfort in the fact that Jesus promises us that we will find him and that we will be filled. But let's not take it for granted that it's just going to come to us or be handed to us. We have to seek him, we have to have that burning desire to know him more. That's our part of the journey of faith.
Live the blessed life, Dave
