Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6
Hunger and thirst are natural and healthy physical drives that God engineered our bodies with to let us know when we are in need of nourishment and liquids so we can stay alive and be healthy. If we did not have these drives in us, we would be in danger of becoming ill and our body literally dying from lack of what we need for life. In a corresponding way, our Creator made us in His image with a need for spiritual nourishment in the way of truth, love, higher purpose and someone to worship and trust in. In the Christian faith, Jesus and His Word are the Bread of Life and the water for our soul. The Spirit of God also produces living fountains of water in us that provide life and strength necessary to live a righteous life. The devil, who is a liar and counterfeiter, would have us worship anything and anyone but the true Living God and to trust in ourselves or something else. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and he is our great enemy according to the Bible. The world will offer cheap substitutes to a real relationship with the Lord and they will slowly but surely malnourish us and bring us to spiritual death. Instead of truth and love, the devil would have us fill our spiritual hunger pains and thirst with unhealthy junk food of deceptions and idolatry that poison our soul. The old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” is true for thinking processes as well as for spiritual health. If we are healthy and growing Christians, we will crave God’s Word and Spirit in our life and feed from it and drink from it on a daily basis. If we are not interested in God’s Word, the Bible, or communion with God’s Spirit in prayer and worship, it is certainly possible we are not really born again and saved, or at the very least, given over to the influence of the world, the flesh and the devil. Let us all examine ourselves in this very important matter: do we desire to grow in our faith, love and service for the Lord, or are we filling ourselves with the garbage food and drink of our doomed and perishing world? The cheap substitutes of our world and the devil will certainly seem to fill our soul momentarily, just like junk food does for our belly, but it is a slow poisoning and a destroyer of health. Junk food is more readily available in our culture/world, and of a lower financial cost at retail, and so is false teaching and deception spiritually; truth must be searched out and is harder to find and obtain. I know this well as before I found Jesus as my Savior, I filled my soul daily with lies and selfish pursuits that were readily available and I grew ever more spiritually unhealthy from it. I now know that true peace, joy and satisfaction will only be found in Jesus Christ our Savior and the focused pursuit of knowing Him more deeply. This is the blessed life!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek