Matthew 5:6

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

Good morning!

Many of you may have gotten a sneak peak of today’s devotional in an email Wednesday night. Just for clarity, that was not intentional. As I mentioned in our first post, we are still working out some kinks and learning the software. With that said, I hope and pray God’s word speaks to your heart today!

Maybe you’re like me and read something so many times that the meaning behind it loses its power. This can often be the case with the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are so familiar to us that if we’re not careful, we can miss the radical nature of these teachings. With that said, I pray that as we continue to study these revolutionary teachings of Jesus, God’s word will be illuminated in a new and fresh way!

I think one of the things that I have come to notice about the Beatitudes is that they are not only virtues we are to pursue but are blessings to be experienced! For example, every culture has an underlying belief of who is blessed and who is not. Usually, it has a lot do with whether you have money or not… If you’re rich, you’re blessed and vice versa. Even nice guys finish last in our culture…. But here in the Beatitudes, Jesus begins to teach that even the ones that are not “culturally” seen as blessed, are indeed blessed in His kingdom!

In today’s passage, Jesus teaches that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied!

Have you ever been “hangry?” Yes, it’s a real thing… just google it! If you don’t know what “hangry” is, let me explain… To be hangry is when you’re so hungry that it turns to anger. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there or have at least experienced the wrath of someone that has… When we’re in this state, we long for something to fill our hunger, and when we finally get to eat, we are satisfied and back to normal. Here, Jesus promises us that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, He promises to satisfy our longing!
As in the verses before, hunger and thirst are characteristics, again, of the oppressed. Those who are not seen as blessed culturally… But in this kingdom, they will be satisfied.

I believe that Jesus is teaching about a group of people who both long for righteousness in their life and their culture. When we hunger and thirst to become close to Jesus and experience His righteousness, He promises us that He will satisfy us. Remember, if we seek Him, we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart…

However, I believe this teaching goes much deeper than just our personal spiritual lives and has a lot to do with our environment as well. In this passage, the word “righteousness” carries a connation of justice as well. Think back to the culture in which this was written. These people were in a difficult situation… being oppressed… working for wealthy landowners… experiencing roman rule…in other words- life was hard!

Jesus teaches that the group that longs for a sense of righteousness and justice in their cultural environment will one day be satisfied.. All of the evil… all of the oppression… these things are temporary and the group that longs to see things made right will be satisfied! A new heaven! A new earth! All things will be restored to what God intended it to be.
In a time where many of us hunger to see things return to where they should be, rest assured… you will be satisfied!

See you Monday,

-Taylor