BE BLESSED

Praise the Lord!!

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matthew 5:6)

                                                                                                                                                    

Happiness is not found when one searches for it. An author writes, "One of the chief sources of unhappiness is the pursuit of happiness". We rearrange our schedules to go somewhere we like. We change our behavior to impress someone we love. We do what we can to obtain something we long for. But in all these we will never find true happiness. Jesus tells us the way to happiness. In Matthew 5:6 He said that happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The world hungers for many things. Some people have an appetite to make bundles of money. They want to earn "good money" to buy villas, luxurious cars and live happily "ever after". Some have an appetite for security. They put their trust in people and jobs. Some are driven by sexual appetites. Some have appetite for intellectual acceptance. But sadly, many of these appetites end in unhappiness and emptiness. Jesus wants us to hunger for righteousness. The Greek word for righteousness here describes the character as being right with God. So, to be hungry for righteousness is to be hungry for God and to conform to His will in our lives. Our real hunger should be for a relationship with God. We should have a strong desire to be right with God; a strong desire to be rid of sin which separates us from God; a strong desire to be holy. We should have a longing to have the fruit of the Spirit in our every action. We should have a passion to be like Lord Jesus Himself. Note that Jesus did not say, "Blessed are the religious"- not those who just go to church and read the Bible. The Pharisees were religious, but Jesus condemned them because their hunger was to be right and not righteous.

Dear friends, do we hunger and thirst for righteousness or do we hunger or thirst only for a tremendous religious experience? We need to get ourselves out of the way and make righteousness our goal. Then surely we will be filled and saturated by God's righteousness.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, let me not run searching for happiness. Let me instead hunger for righteousness, to have right relationship with you and to hate sin. Let me have the desire to become more like Jesus. As I seek you fill me with your righteousness till I am saturated by it. Amen.