Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness

The word for Righteousness in the Greek is δικαιοσύνην (dikaiosuné) which means judicial approval or divine approval. This is what is deemed right by the Lord or what is approved in His sight. God is a righteous judge of character. This can include such characteristics as integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting. There is something that is refreshing to me about seeking righteousness. There is something about it that makes you feel good because God designed us to be created in His image and this is an attribute of God. It follows then that it would make you feel good since this is what God has created us to do. It is in our DNA--It is like the air that you breath.

I remember that there was a time when I was struggling as a teenager. I had run away from home because I believed in a lie. I had been hitchhiking for several days and living under bridges and in parks. I did not have a place to take a shower and I was feeling very dirty and disheartened. There was a river that I was passing by and I decided to wade out into it and just let the water run over me. I vividly remember how it felt when the “living” water was rushing over me. Very cleansing and renewing. It reminds me of a psalm that says:

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me." Psalm 42:1-2,7

God wants us to desire righteousness. This is the fuel that we need to be complete and whole. Everyone has a deep longing in their hearts for fulfillment. We long for that good land--that special place where we will find rest. We search for it our whole life long. The longing that we have is for the righteousness of God. It says in Isaiah 26:9,

“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning, my spirit longs for you.”

Righteousness is what God granted to us when Jesus became the propitiation of our sins and died on the cross so that we could be declared Righteous. When Jesus offered the woman at the well the living water. He told her that those who drink the water from the well that they were drawing water from would thirst again, but if she drank from the water that He offered, she would never thirst again. Blessed indeed are the ones that hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be filled!

It is Well with My Soul – Horatio Gates Spafford

“When peace, like a river,

attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot,

Thou hast taught me to say,

“It is well, it is well with my soul”