Based on Matthew 5:6

MEMORY TEXT:  “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.  For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:6).

I am the kind of person who likes to do things around the house.  I like to paint.  I like to do carpentry work.  I like general maintenance. 

The outside of our house is covered with wood paneling.  It’s damp here in Florida, which tends to rot the paneling.  So every few years sections of paneling need to be replaced, and I have learned how to do that.  I can even do a little plumbing and some electric repair.  However, for the things I cannot do, I hire people who will do a good job for me.

Sometimes I have problems with my car, which has a few years on it.  I know almost nothing about auto repair, so I have to take it to an auto repair shop.  The point is, there are some things a person can hire someone else to do for them.  But there are other things that only the person himself can do for themselves--notably, to breathe and to eat.

When I was a little boy I remember telling my mother, “I’m hungry.  When are we going to eat?”  Now that I think of it, I say the same thing now to my wife!  There is nothing wrong with being hungry; because if we didn’t take care of our hunger and thirst, after a while we would die.

It would be correct to say, Blessed are they that get hungry and thirsty for good food and clean water to maintain the health of the body.  But Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:6 that even more blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

To hunger and thirst after righteousness means that we long to be free from sin, because it is sin that separates us from God.  “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).  A person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness wants to be free not only from sin but free even from the desire to sin.