A Happy Hunger

I have some kind of blood sugar disorder.  Most of the time, like right now, I can’t remember the name of it, but it isn’t diabetes.  Anyway, when it sets in I need to eat and eat now.  My body is hungry even if my stomach isn’t.  Fortunately the instant onset of symptoms alerts me to my urgent need and creates that hunger in my mind that can save my life.  Having that hunger, in fact, makes me happy – it keeps me going.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  This is a holy hunger that will bless our lives with satisfaction and life.  It is a hunger that God will never ignore.  It is a hunger that the psalmist says is more important than our daily food. 

On one level this hunger is a hunger for the Word of God.  In God’s Word we find righteousness.  The psalmist said that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”  He went on to say that they were “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”  There’s that sugar spike I need to stay alive. 

A second level of hungering for righteousness is the hunger to have it active in ourselves.  When we think of hunger we think of wanting, or needing, to eat and do it now.  That is how we should feel about righteous living.  We should feel the need to be doing it and doing it now.  Living for the Kingdom cannot be put off for some more convenient time.  The time with God is now.  It is the time that we have.

Of course the greatest righteousness that we need is being righteous with God.  We cannot meet this hunger on our own.  All we do cannot avail to please God or to satisfy the emptiness of life without Him.  One of the names of God is The Lord is My Righteousness.  Paul told us that God has exchanged our filthy rags of sin with Christ’s righteousness in making us His child.  When we throw ourselves at the feet of the cross and cry out, “I can’t make it on my own.  My hunger is too great and my ability is nothing at all.”  God, in grace will hear our cry and feed us the righteousness of Christ and make us His own.  We shall be filled now and forever. 

Isaac Watt’s hymn “Blest Are the Humble Souls That See” covers this hunger in verse four.  “Blest are the souls that thirst for grace hunger and long for righteousness; they shall be well supplied, and fed with living streams and living bread.”

 

Visit my website at www.davidccraig.net for inspiring Christian books.  Coming this month is my newest book Taking Care of Joe.  This is the story of a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient.  See how God adds His grace in the face of this horrible disease and how living a life of love is living a life NOT interrupted.  You may also find some of my selected daily devotions at FEBC.org.  FEBC is a vital missionary outreach to many countries that are closed to traditional missionary work.