APRIL 16, Matthew 5:6

Ever been hungry? I mean really hungry? When was the last time you were hungry enough to be thankful for a plate of plain rice, or something tasteless? Perhaps in Singapore, not many have been really hungry or thirsty but in the times of Jesus, having enough food and drinks was a privilege not all enjoy.

In this 4th beatitude, we learn that righteousness is to be right with God. It is to be spiritually acceptable to God and Jesus compares righteousness to food. You hunger for food and thirst for drinks. Food is of course essential to our physical life. You hunger and thirst for that which you think, like food, to be essential to your life. Without food and drink, we die. So when our body hungers and thirsts, it is actually crying out in what is described as thirst for drink and hunger for food because the life of our body depends on it. The only person who does not get hungry or thirsty is a person who is dead. This has a parallel in the spiritual realm – you can tell if a person is alive in Christ by whether he hungers and thirsts for righteousness, whether he or she wants to be right with God.

Jesus is saying this: righteousness is as vital to the spiritual life as food and drink is to the physical life. Righteousness is something so vital to your spiritual life that your spirit, if it knew what it needed, would be crying out, hungering for righteousness. Without righteousness, you cannot live spiritually. So the comparison is between food and drink that we need at the physical level to righteousness, which is both food and drink, at the spiritual level.

Do you have an appetite for righteousness? Do you hunger for righteousness? A sick person has no appetite. If you have no or a small appetite for righteousness, it might be that you are spiritually sick. Righteousness holds no attraction to those who have a lack of spiritual appetite. If that is the case, pray that God will help you recognize and solve it by repenting and asking God to renew a right attitude in you.

Thought: Do I crave for God and His Word?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please help me to truly hunger and thirst after you. Help me to have a daily desire for the sincere milk of your Word so that I can grow in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.