MATTHEW 5:6

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

TO PONDER

I am quite familiar with this verse from my regular reading of the bible, hearing it read in church and reading devotional materials. But I am not sure I fully understand what it means. I guess I feel it means something like living to God’s rules. Anyway, not being sure, I did some research, and I have come up with a practical understanding. To be righteous, we will have an attitude to other people, and to God, the same as the attitude that Jesus demonstrated by His life while here on earth. But it is an attitude that is active, caring practically about the needs of others, and listening to where God is calling us to go and doing what God is calling us to do. In the next chapter of Matthew (Matthew 6:33), Jesus promises that if we are focused on living our God’s love and care for others (His righteousness), He will look after our own personal needs for us.

When we are physically hungry or thirsty, our attention will tend to focus on obtaining food or drink to satisfy our hunger or thirst. When we are emotionally of spiritually empty, similarly we will seek activities which will fill that emptiness. From my own experience, these tend to often be just time wasters, activities that bring some instant satisfaction or distraction, but no lasting relief. Playing solitaire is just one example – I’m so absorbed in my own little world, that I forget my emptiness – for a while.

What Jesus is trying to get through to us is that He has things for us to do that not only fill the emptiness, but bring on-going joy and fulfilment into our lives. Sometimes, God just wants us to go and see what He is doing in other people’s lives – to just be a spectator. The experience will change us, and even if we just share with other what we have seen God doing, we will be living God’s righteousness. Think about the shepherds at the first Christmas. After witnessing what God had done, they just couldn’t stop telling everyone they met what they had just witnessed. Not very hard, even for us introverts.  They just had to obey one command from God: Go!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, so often we can become paralysed by our insecurities and feelings of emptiness or failure. Help us to remember that your answer is often for us to get up and go where you are calling us to go, so that you can give us experiences that refocus us on living in the relationship we have with you. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping