What Does It Mean to Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness?

I once knew what it was like to feel no hunger at all. I'd been unwell, and even though I wanted to eat, my body didn't recognise the hunger. When I finally did eat, I felt no satisfaction at all.

I knew something was wrong, so I prayed for the hunger to return. It did, in full force. I was so famished I was desperate to be filled, and when I finally was, the relief felt like pure bliss.

What did Jesus mean by 'hunger and thirst'?

That experience took me back to Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Jesus was speaking to people who knew real hunger and thirst intimately, and He tells them to want righteousness the same way: with a passion that is real, natural, and sometimes painful, a driving force they cannot ignore.

What are we hungry for instead?

Dear friend, we're often more familiar with hungering for other things: power, relationships, comfort, success, approval. Righteousness asks for something different: a desire to look more like Jesus, to be shaped daily into His likeness, and to long for His righteousness to be seen in the world around us.

I'll be honest: this is a challenge for me. Do I hunger for righteousness the way I hunger for food? Wherever you're starting from today, that's the starting point Jesus meets you at.

And He makes a promise: those who hunger like this will be satisfied. He will fill us, and that fullness is bliss.

If you want a greater hunger for the things of God, why not bring that longing to the Interseed community and ask others to pray it would grow in you?