Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Are you hungry and thirsty for Jesus? Please understand this – and I really, really mean it – this isn’t a question to guilt you. I’ve questioned this myself. I grew up thinking I was a lousy Christian. All through my youth, and through much of my adulthood, I thought I wasn’t doing enough, wasn’t right-thinking enough, didn’t believe deeply enough. Other people knew more than me; surely I was doing something wrong. Church didn’t help; in fact, it made things worse. I could never do enough, never measure up enough, never be good enough to be the kind of person Jesus would want.
I was spiritually parched. But, every time I opened my worn-out Concordia, I wanted to know more. Even when I was a brazen hypocrite, I knew that what I read there, what Jesus said there, what I needed to know there, was true-north. I wanted to know the way out of the things I was doing, the thoughts I was having, how to turn away from the temptations for which I was falling and I wasn’t finding it in anything I was doing except in Christ. I felt empty, but when I read about Jesus, when I talked with Him and submitted to Him, I felt satisfied. In fact, it was really the only time I felt truly satisfied.
Guess what? I am never enough. I can never do enough, never be “good enough.” Neither can you. Because no none of us are, or can be. In the world, “enough” is just a lie. It’s a human desire, even instinct, to want more, to want to be satisfied. Unfortunately, what the world offers doesn’t really satisfy. I’m not righteous, but Jesus is. Only Jesus satisfies; only Jesus is righteous and good, so only Jesus is good enough.
Jesus is everything He says He is in the Bible, and much more. He reached out into our humanity that had repeatedly rejected Him and chose to love us, to save us. God, who could obliterate us, chose love because that’s His nature. In today’s verse, Jesus used an idea from Isaiah 55 to remind people that He offers satisfaction for our hunger, and satiation for our spiritual thirst. ONLY He can offer this. Other people will try; Satan will try; both Satan and people will manipulate our thoughts and feelings so that we move away from Jesus, but that always leaves us feeling like we are ‘not enough.”
Because we aren’t. Only Jesus is righteous and enough, and only He offers free fulfillment in spirit and body. He offers it for now, and He offers it forever. I didn’t understand this years ago, but I’m thankful to ‘get it’ now. I hope this helps you understand, too.
For more reading: Isaiah 55:1-2, Mark 12:14, Matthew 5:7
Lord Jesus, only You are enough. I hunger for You. Fill me and help me share.
Practical Proverbs 