“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

I was watching a commercial for a candy bar and their tag line came up, saying, ‘satisfy your hunger’. I thought for a minute and said, man that sure looks good but is that all its going to take to satisfy my hunger? The taste of chocolate and a brief sugar rush? Of course, I’m absolutely going to enjoy every bite, but I’m certainly under no illusion that I’m going to be satisfied for more than an hour. So many things in life are temporary fixes to our hunger of the moment: jobs, money, food, addictions, misguided relationships. As the old Johnny Lee country song says, we spend a lot of time “looking for love in all the wrong places”, then we spend the rest of our time complaining that life does not love us back. The real question we have to answer today is,

Where Do We Find Long Term Satisfaction?

Is it even possible to find something satisfying that will last? Something that won’t wear out or grow stale. Something that will build us up and won’t leave us out in the cold. For me, each day that I grow in faith, life becomes more satisfying than the day before. My daily walk with God fills me up. All of life’s struggles may not have melted away, but day by day they become more manageable because I view them differently. Jesus says, ‘Don’t worry’, so I make it a daily point to try and eliminate worry. Jesus says ‘Do not fear’, so I make it a daily point to eliminate fear in my life. Each new day I chose to trust in the One who gives us a beautiful promise in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” So many get hung up on the word “righteous” so re-read this verse one more time when a definition replaces that word. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for leading a life that is pleasing to God, for they shall be filled.” Wow! You mean I can be blessed and filled simply by hungering and thirsting to live a life that is pleasing to God? YES YOU CAN! Then what pleases God, you might ask? Its simple – Faith. Hebrews 11:6 holds the answer: “Without faith it is impossible to please God”.