Getting Satisfaction

by Francine Biere
Published February 18, 2006

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied, Matthew 5:6, New American Standard
Part 3

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Have you heard the popular words of encouragement, "if you want something bad enough, you can obtain it?" That certainly may be true in the normal pursuits the world chases. For some, material gain comes simply by working hard. For others, the opportunities fall short of meeting the most basic of needs.

Sadly, many never feel satisfied, no matter how hard they try. Some of the most successful people who appear to have it all, are unhappy. There are enough tragic stories of wealthy or popular people who've ended up committing suicide because … well, we may never know.

There are even more whose lives are empty and they continually seek something … anything to fill the emptiness. When they aren't satisfied, they slip into depression, wondering where they've gone wrong. Even pharmaceutical companies can attest to the seemingly insatiable need for medications to calm us down, lift us up, or put us to sleep.

However, here in this verse, Jesus tells us if we hunger and thirst after righteousness we will be satisfied. We must be careful to seek these things for the right reasons rather than for the promised blessing.

The Life Application New American Standard Bible notes that the worldly interpretation of this beatitude is pursuing personal needs.

Too often, we turn to the Bible, find a promise, and claim it for ourselves. Then, when the blessing doesn't come, we are quick to blame God. Many turn away from the Creator because regardless of how much they believed, the promises never materialized. It's easy to look at the words and put them in our human perspective. We fail to see that God's perspective on things is often different from our own.

We can look for righteousness, but if we aren't personally hungering and thirsting for it, we may begin to take on the same attitudes of the Pharisees. They certainly knew what righteousness was. They were highly educated and devoted men. The problem was they were more focused on the words in the laws than on the living embodiment of the Truth.

I wonder, did they ever question who this man named Jesus really was? In the privacy of their own thoughts, did they ever think, even for a second or two, that their own strict adherence to righteousness prevented them from a living encounter with the Son of God?

I know that I've been guilty of the same thing. At times, I've been so busy pursuing righteousness that I didn't take the time to live it out and missed precious intimate moments with my Savior.

The thing about hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness is that we are blessed with a satisfaction that fills us with unshakeable peace.

*All scripture quoted taken from The New American Standard Bible

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