What Are You Thirsting For?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

One of the things that drive the media and advertising industry is to create things that we hunger for. Why is it the most popular reality show lives that people vicariously live through? Why is porn a multi-billion dollar industry in our country? Why do violent thrillers do so well at the box office? The answer is that most people lead dull and un-interesting lives, and they look to fill it with something exciting. The answer is our soul is longing for something deeper. We hunger and thirst for something more than this!

St Augustine said, "Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it rest in Thee."

Some of the most evocative words in the Old Testament come from Ecclesiastes 3:11,

"God has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."

John Piper, a popular theologian, says it like this, "God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing. We try to satisfy it with scenic vacations, accomplishments of creativity, stunning cinematic productions, sexual exploits, national sports extravaganzas, hallucinogenic drugs, ascetic rigors, managerial excellence, etc., etc. But the longing remains."

And in today's verse Jesus says, "Blessed are those who thirst for righteousness". "Righteousness" is a right relationship with God, based on doing what God asks of us. We long for this. We thirst to be good people who are in a good relationship with God. There is a "God shaped hole in our heart!" And even though we can never achieve this kind of righteousness on our own, Jesus says blessed are those who thirst after it. And he promises that they we will be filled!

Filled with what? Ultimately they will be filled with Him. They will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. They will be filled with a restored and reconciled relationship with God. So the question at the end of the day is what do you thirst for? Is it filling you? Really? Someone has said filling ourselves with the things of the world is like drinking salt water. The more you drink, the more thirsty you get, and eventually it kills you.

The Good News is we can be ful-filled. As we come to Jesus he quenches our thirst with the living water. That what it truly means to be fulfilled. We are fulfilled when we are doing what God us to do. Everything else is like drinking salt water.

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