God's stamp of approval: The hungry and thirsty

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."--Matthew 5:6.  For the fourth Beatitude, we see that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied and they have God's stamp of approval.  

The hungry and thirsty.  I am sure we have all heard the expression that says something like "I want it so bad I can taste it" or some variation thereof.  Well when it comes to righteousness, this passage shows us that Christians who have this type of mentality have God's stamp of approval.  We will explore the key words in this verse which are hunger, thirst and righteousness. It is those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness that have God's stamp of approval. 

The hungry.  According to the definition of the Greek word for hungry here, to hunger means to desire something strongly (BDAG 792). I think we have all had a time in our lives where we craved something to eat that we just went out and got it to satisfy the craving.  It might be something as simple as chips and salsa, one of my personal favorites, as in the image below. I have been guilty of this more than once :-).  But what about righteousness? As Christians do we crave righteousness as much as we would crave our favorite food, whatever that might be?

    

The thirsty.  According to the definition of the Greek word for thirst, to thirst here means to have a strong desire to attain a goal (BDAG 253).  Have you ever had a goal such as saving enough money to do something special, getting your HS Diploma, college degree or that promotion at your job?  Ever been on a team to accomplish some goal at your church, in sports or on the job? Well as Christians, we are all working as a team to attain what should be our number one goal and that is get to heaven but righteousness is required to get there.  So like we might do all we can to meet an earthly goal of any sort, as Christians our mentality should be do all we can to attain our heavenly goal which ultimately depends on the grace of God. But what about righteousness?

Righteousness, according to the definition of the Greek word righteousness means one has the quality or characteristic of upright behavior (BDAG 248).  

The hungry and the thirsty.  So Matthew 5:6, among other things, shows us that those who crave and have a strong desire to attain righteousness will not only be satisfied but they have God's stamp of approval.  Remember, blessed in this context means to be the recipient of divine (God's) favor.  

So again I ask, as Christians are we craving righteousness in the same way we might crave our favorite food? Do we thirst or have a strong desire to attain that goal in the same way we might be working towards a particular earthly goal? Of course we can't earn righteousness but if our works are based on our faith in God (James 2:20-26), we will not be disappointed and our hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. 

So my encouragement to you is this.  Next time you crave your favorite snack or food and you are tempted to go spend money on that, I encourage you to resist and put that money that you would have spent and give it to your church the following Sunday.  Giving up one moment of pleasure can lead to a lifetime of blessings from God.  After all, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."--Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:6 :-)

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!