Theme: What is the Blessed Life?

‘Hungering For God’

Jesus had an amazing way of saying things.  That is why so many of the things He said are emblazoned on our hearts.  One of those amazing and memorable sayings from Jesus is the Beatitude:  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteous, for they shall be satisfied.

A few years ago when we lived in Lubbock, there was a billboard advertising the upcoming Texas Tech Red Raider football season.  It pictured a Tech player in his uniform in a threatening posture and the caption said, ‘We’re hungry!!’  The hunger represented by that billboard was a hunger to be a successful football team.

Jesus redefines our hunger—not for hamburgers and French fries—but for righteousness.  In that same sermon with the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us to ‘store up treasures in heaven’.  He tells us to be ‘devoted to one master’.  And, to ‘seek FIRST God’s kingdom’.  

How do we develop this great appetite for the spiritual?  How do we get to the point of the great song, ‘As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after You.  You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship You.  I want You more than gold or silver, only You can satisfy.  You alone are the real joy giver, and the apple of my eye?’  I think that is what Jesus is conveying in the Beatitude.  He wants us to thirst for God like a deer thirsts for water.  He wants us to hunger for God like one who has fasted for days hungers for food.  And the great thing that Jesus tells us is:  we will be satisfied if we have such a hunger.  God will fill our hunger.  

Let me close these thoughts with a prayer that is borrowed from Tim Woodruff.

Father, I don’t hunger for You as I should.  So many other appetites, so many other passions, compete with You in my heart.  Forgive me, Father, when I let petty passions overwhelm my longings for You.  I’m ashamed when that happens.  Lord, I want to want You.  I hunger to be hungry for You.  Teach me Your ways.  Show me Your will.  Instruct me in the path I should walk.  Grant me the strength and the discipline to live better than I feel, to follow You even when I would rather do something else.  Let me learn meekness—to say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”  But then, Father, grant me the gift of passion.  Take my weak intentions and feeble efforts and transform them into a consuming passion for You.  Fill me with a zeal for You that captures my heart and directs my life.  Let my gratitude for what You have done for me fuel a burning desire to live for You.  I love You, Father.  Help me to live like it.   AMEN.        

Terry Brown

Abilene, Texas