Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. – Matthew 5:6
It is said a body can go without food for about 30-40 days and without drink for about 10-14 days. But, of course, no one would want to. There is nothing as driving as hunger and thirst. In today’s verse, Jesus compares the desire to do right as compelling and necessary as wanting to eat and drink. And also in today’s verse, He compares the satisfaction of doing the right thing to the satisfaction of having physical hunger and thirst sated. Think of walking in God’s ways being as fulfilling as eating a delicious Thanksgiving meal.
No one but God can see your spirit, but if they could, would your spirit be healthy and plump or skinny and emaciated like a starving war orphan? Fill up on worshiping God, reading the Bible, praying, fasting, taking care of yourself and your family and practicing acts of kindness and compassion. Today’s verse can be taken as one of God’s promises. If you do these things, you will be satisfied and fulfilled.
The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:6 says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” In the same passage, he warns about pursuing riches. He says to be content with food and clothing. He reproves people who imagine that “godliness is the means of gain” (v. 5). He warns “that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (v. 10). In prayer for this country, pray that Americans will become less materialistic and more concerned for others’ spiritual and physical wellbeing. Jesus says, “The water that I will give (you) will become in (you) a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Today’s Verse: Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: John 4:1-14
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
