"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
Matthew 5:6
We have all heard this line from Jesus preaching on the mountain. Jesus starts off his preaching with sharing what has become the 8 beatitudes. In most bibles, the title under this section is called, " True happiness" Or something along those lines. Usually with the word happiness. Why? The Latin word, 'beatitudo' which literally means Happiness.
I'm not sure about other people, but I have always wondered what it meant by 'Righteousness' The base word righteous means (according to my bible dictionary) Doing what is right; Without sin.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for doing right; they will be filled.
That leaves the door open for what is right? How do we know whats right?
So instead of doing right it should be:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to do what God wants; for they will be filled!
This great list Jesus gives us is the key to true happiness; or perfect happiness. Specifically in this one, Jesus proclaims to us, to do the work of God. To focus our lives on God. To WANT to do what God wants. To be filled with great spirit, and be guided to do Gods will.
God calls us all to hunger for him. He wants us to come to him. To unlock true happiness. What a gift God gave us of Free will. It's amazing how God, our heavenly creator, who wanted all of us in heaven, created such a gift for us.
It was for exactly this. He wanted to see who would hunger and thirst for his word; for his food. He wanted the true faithful. Those who go to be filled; not for a show. God fills us if we go with a hungry spirit to do HIS plan. Which means putting down all our selfish ways, and entering into Gods Almighty Love.
With each new beatitude, Jesus offers two things: 1 A problem and 2 A solution. He puts forward a problem. A spiritual problem or an earthly problem. But with every problem their is Jesus is always their to offer a solution. Jesus is their to fix everything. He gives us a problem. Okay, people who hunger and thirst for what God wants. Then he offers a solution of God will fill them; they will be filled.
Jesus finished this off with saying, " For they will be filled" Jesus gives us everything we need-spiritually... To live that perfect spiritual life. but ....Are we ever filled? Are we ever happy with what we have? Do we ever want more than what we got?
Imagine this: Imagine you had EVERYTHING you ever wanted. A New Car, A Brand New house, All toys for kids, A New t.v a new Ipad... Imagine that! wouldn't that be Great? Certainly NOT! If we had everything we ever wanted we would not be happy still. Nope not to one bit. With SEEING what others have, we would have 'forgotten' to have had something.
It's in watching the t.v and sources of media, that tells us we are wrong. The t.v is wrong. Your body is wrong. Your car is wrong. You Are Wrong. All because you don't have the newest thing. It's the fear that fills us of the thought of being wrong. The thought that you will never be good enough. That you will never have the right thing.
But you do...
In fact we all do....
We all have Jesus. It's Right. We all have what we have. And that's RIGHT. Jesus doesn't want us to have everything we ever wanted because he knew that it would never be enough to make us happy. With that Jesus tells us what TRUE Happiness is. It's not by having material items and keeping up with society, it is being hungry and thirsty for God.
Everything we are is RIGHT.
Pope Benedict had once said,
" Christians must not be afraid to go “against the grain” in order to live their faith, resisting the temptation to “conform”
Do not be afraid not to have the newest thing. DO NOT be afraid to go against the grain to live your faith. Go to God Hungry, and thirsty, For What God wants, For his body for his blood; for his word. God fills us all if we want to be filled. Blessed be God Forever!
Jesus wants us to be happy. He wants us to, feel happy in our heart- Which he supplies. And not just momentary happiness from materials. For Jesus did say, " Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness .. For they will be filled.
Yes even Christians have to be reminded from time to time to be content with what they have in life. But there was and always will be those who lead and subscribe to a "prosperity", or "name it and claim it" gospel. In the day to day living of our lives we have to be careful that we don't put too much emphasis on the material things of this world. After all this earthly existence is really a sort of a waiting area where we patiently anticipate our real destination-the other side of eternity. In the meantime Christ has some higher calling of each of us to pass the time. We must seek it out and obey it. You wouldn't sit for years in a waiting room or transit, or airport waiting area without something to occupy the time away would you? 'Course not. You'd have a good book, a magazine, or a hand held device to while away the time. Well, Christ has something along those lines that's meant to build up his kingdom for us to do. We just have to look for it and obey.
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