S196P17- Growth spurts: hunger

Mt. 5:6

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

The saddest thing about one being lost is not having any idea exactly how lost one is.  The dark cavern of sin which used to be my home is not a finite area or a defined space.  I see now how that place grew without my knowing and always made room for every new ungodly thing I desired.  Sinful behavior became something which satisfied at first but which ultimately left me always longing for a little more.  Regardless of the nature of the behavior, I found myself feeling empty again and looking for the next bigger and better meal to hit the spot.  The more I tasted, the more I wanted and needed.  This is simply the natural order of spiritual nourishment.  The more we have, the more we crave, but the question is one of which type of spiritual food we desire for our feast.

I used to read this verse and picture a single occurrence or point in time, as if we hunger once for righteousness and are filled in that instant, and that is the end of the story.  If we look at physical hunger and use that as our reference point, we see that this is more of a daily cycle.  Just like the one who cannot get enough sin and always craves more, our hunger for righteousness should develop in the same way except that righteousness actually satisfies.  As we experience more and more the holiness of God and its work in us, we should crave even more of it.  Being filled by God’s righteous is a process, not a moment.  This is the spiritual food which builds us, and no child grows to become an adult in a single day.  This takes time, and as we grow spiritually, we should desire more good spiritual food.

We will not see a day here when we experience and know every facet of God’s righteousness.  That does not mean, however, that we do not get our fill.  Like the stomach which stretches and grows to desire more food as we feed it more, that is also the nature of these spiritual vessels we occupy.  There is a smorgasbord of righteousness awaiting us, and we only need step up and serve ourselves.  We will be satisfied, and we will be filled, and we still will desire more.  That is what growth in God’s righteousness looks like.  When we taste and see how good his holiness is, we should want another taste and still another.  We know that He will never run out.  Father, give us a renewed hunger for your righteousness, that we would desire to be holy as You are holy.