BLESSED ARE THE SPIRITUALLY HUNGRY

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Here again, we find a paradox in the teaching of Jesus, something that seems to contradict common sense. Which is THE BLESSED MAN, the man that is hungry or the man that is full? We would naturally assume that fullness and satisfaction is a sign of blessing. However, Jesus wants us to know that this is not always true. Having every appetite filled is not always good for us. Physical and financial security and satisfaction can often result in spiritual apathy. The Laodicean church is an example of this. Their personal estimation was recorded as, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Jesus’ evaluation of them was quite different. He said, “thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). In our free, industrialized, capitalistic society, virtually every need is met. The experience of material prosperity has left many Americans without a sense of their greater need, which is spiritual. So much of our world is consumed with entertainment and pleasure that the absence of God is unnoticed or of little concern. The writer of Proverbs recognized this inherent danger when he wrote, “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee” (Proverbs 30:8, 9). THE BLESSED MAN must maintain a spiritual appetite. We must always be hungering and thirsting for truth and righteousness. Although we are obviously satisfied with Jesus, we should never be satisfied with our progress in the journey or our growth in grace. We can only be continually filled with God’s blessings as we are consistently hungering and thirsting for more of His work of grace in our lives. The more we hunger and thirst, the more we will be filled. Isaiah said it this way, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground” (Isaiah 44:3). How many times do people come to the Word of God or to the church services without a spiritual appetite, and then go away receiving little? THE BLESSED MAN nurtures an appetite for God and His truth and will find that his perpetual hunger and thirst will be met with ongoing nourishment from the Source of all true blessings.

A devotional thought by Pastor Smith of Mt. Zion Baptist Church