Starving for a Holy Life

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a happy person when I’m hungry. I get irritable. In fact, the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning isn’t prayer. I’m just being honest. The first thing I think of is food. I want food. I need food.

My wife, on the other hand, can go halfway through the day and then say, “I think I forgot to eat lunch.”

Meanwhile, I’m wondering if that is even humanly possible. How do you forget to eat lunch? I count down the minutes until lunch. By 9:30 I’m already wondering how long it will be until lunch.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of another kind of hunger, a spiritual hunger. He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV).

The word “blessed” Jesus used here also means “happy.” When you’re emptied of sin, you’re hungry for God. And a happy person will desperately, passionately desire a righteous life.

When someone says, “I don’t really feel like I need to read the Bible that much. And I don’t really desire to be in church that much, either.”

If that is the case, then I’m sorry for them, because they’re missing out. “Blessed [happy] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus said, “for they shall be filled.”

The psalmist was hungering and thirsting for righteousness when he wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1 NKJV).

When you’re hungry for God, the only thing that will satisfy you is God. Are you starving for a holy life? Do you hunger for God’s best for you? If so, then you can take practical steps to get it.