What in this world is promising you safety, peace and happiness if only you base your life on it – and you’re desperately hoping this thing will come through in the end? Possibly, there is a certain university acceptance letter you’re hoping to see in the mailbox all those multiple times a day you open it. Maybe you’ve made your way through numerous interviews for a position at the company you have dreamed of working for. Or, you’re checking your phone to hear at-least something from the person you have not heard from since your first date a few evenings ago. All of us are to some degree or another passionately yearning for something to satisfy our longings.

Matthew 5:6 reads “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” What is Jesus trying to communicate? Jesus says those who hunger and thirst are blessed. The “hunger and thirst” he mentions is metaphorical for the yearning sensation we all have for soul satisfaction. But what are we to “hunger and thirst” for? Jesus says the blessings of the kingdom flow to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In the Sermon On The Mount, the word “righteousness” keeps popping up and each time its connotation is that of right conduct in the eyes of God. So, essentially Jesus is saying, blessed are those who passionately yearn to do what is right before God.

If we’re not careful, we’ll miss the point and merely see Jesus’ words as a command when in actuality they form a promise (“for they shall be satisfied”). The counterfeit gods we make even out of good things in hopes of satisfaction only enslave us in the end. They never die for us, they never overcome death for us, they inevitably kill us. Jesus’ promise can reorient us to the One our hearts were meant to long for and even now we can begin to enjoy the kingdom blessedness of soul satisfaction that will be our eternal reality.

Mr. Daniel Ray, Guest Speaker

Photograph credit: David Beale