Devotionals from my Bible app: What Do You Crave? (Matthew 5:6)

Brief note before sharing the devotional: although I’m aware that this next set of devotionals is from Scripture that a lot of people are already familiar with, the timing of these arriving in my Bible app couldn’t have been more on-point, from a God-challenging-me perspective. The key to understanding the passage commonly known as the Beatitudes, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on Mount (or Plain, in Luke’s account) on the whole, is realizing that you have to apply this to yourself. I have to apply this to myself. All of a sudden, the tone and meaning of this passage sounds completely different.

What Do You Crave?

Every day, multiple times a day, little alarms are triggered inside your brain. They make your stomach growl, your mouth water, or your mind become fixed on that which you crave.

God gave us physical needs that mirror our spiritual needs, too. Needs that must be met to stay healthy and alive. Needs that must be satisfied over and over again. In fact, food is often used in the Bible as a metaphor for our spiritual needs (it's called "our daily bread" in Matthew and the "pure milk" of the Word in 1 Peter, to name a couple.)

In the fourth beatitude, which are a series of promises Jesus made about God’s Kingdom, Jesus said this:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6 NIV

Do you long for righteousness and justice? Do you desire the ways of God? Do you yearn for His kingdom to come? Do you want to be someone who chases after that which can never truly satisfy, or someone who hungers and thirsts after God?

In this upside-down kingdom where Jesus is Lord, the poor can be rich, the weak can be strong, and the empty can be filled.

Jesus Christ not only holds the keys to “living water,” but He is the “Bread of Life.” So, when you feel Him prompting your heart—to fight for justice, to love the unloved, to stand up for what’s right (even when it’s not popular)—pay attention.

He stands ready to fill you with everything you need.

https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.5.6.ESV