1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 5 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst | Page 7

waitress puts flowers on his table. She asks if he is comfortable. He replies that he is, but he
would like some food. She then puts on nice music and asks if it is to his taste. He says it is,
but he would still like some food. She asks him if the lighting in the restaurant is pleasing.
He assures her that he does not care too much for the lighting, he just wants food. She thinks
that some small talk might be appropriate at this point; he, however, does not and asks her
to please just bring him some food. You see, folks, for a hungry man, he does not care too
much for the superficial things; he just wants to be fed. There is a spiritual implication here
that until we realise that there is no substitute for righteousness, no amount of nice music
or pleasant ambiance or welcoming embraces is going to suffice. There needs to, within
every Christian, be an insatiable desire for God. David, in Psalm 42, likens it to a deer dying
of thirst. He says in verse 1, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you oh
God.” David was the king and all of the superficial comforts and benefits that went with
being the king were all his. But David was wise enough to not be fooled into letting these
things satisfy him. He realised that soul satisfaction comes only from God. This desire for
God is, in the midst of all the other desires around us, an exclusive desire. I hope that this is
true for you as well.
In Matthew 19 Jesus met a young man who although he had a noble desire, his desire was
not exclusive. We refer to him as the rich young ruler. He had a desire to do what is right but
he still wanted the power, the praise and the prosperity of this life and it was this desire
that overwhelmed the desire to leave everything and to follow Jesus. You see, his desire for
God, although it was there, was not exclusive. Jesus spoke, in Matthew 13, about a man
walking across a field who spotted a treasure in this field. This man left and sold everything
he had so that he could possess the treasure – that is an exclusive desire; where his desire
for that treasure caused him to sacrifice everything else that was not of similar value. It is
this desire for righteousness that leads to the blessedness that Jesus is talking about in
Matthew 5 and results in the subsequent filling that is promised at the close of this
Beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Prayer Thought: As you pray today won’t you take some time to see how exclusive your desire
is for God and His righteousness. I know that we are all on a spiritual journey, but in order for
us to graduate to the next level of this journey it will require of us to make God bigger in our
minds, hearts and lives as everything else becomes smaller. I don’t think this happens,
necessarily, overnight, I think it is a process and therefore needs to be a continued issue every
day.

Friday
Reading: Joshua 7 / 1 Kings 18 v 1 – 40