In the 1600’s the Puritan, Richard Baxter wrote:
“If you have sincerely given yourself up to God, and consented to His covenant, show it, by turning the face of your endeavors and conversation quite another way; seek heaven more fervently and diligently than you ever sought the world or fleshly pleasures… If you are a believer, and have subjected yourself to God as your absolute Sovereign, King, and Judge, it will then be your work to obey and please Him, as a child his father, or a servant his master… Will you not serve God more zealously than you served the devil? Will you not labor harder to save souls than you did to damn them? Will you not be more zealous in good than you were in evil? If you are true believers, you have now laid up your hope in heaven; seek it, as worldlings set themselves to seek the world.”
That’s what Jesus taught when He began the “Sermon on the Mount”. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) This doesn’t mean those who are occasionally hungry for righteousness. It is not implying the attitude that we sometimes have in regards to physical food, where we say “Yes, I am a little hungry, but I don’t have time to eat right now, I’ll grab something later!” The Greek words used for “hunger” and “thirst” in the original text mean to CRAVE something more than anything else. It’s like a man slowly dying of starvation and thirst out in a desert. He will give EVERYTHING HE HAS for food and drink, that is ALL that consumes Him. THAT is what Jesus meant when He said “Blessed are those who HUNGER and THIRST for righteousness…”
If we have SINCERELY and TRULY given ourselves up to God, following Him and becoming more and more like Him is ALL that matters to us! I fear WAY too many (if not the vast majority) of people who claim to know Christ in today’s world are not willing to seek God and His righteousness so fervently, and that is the problem with our world. We can’t expect to win others to Christ, when our life is no different than theirs. Oh, that we would TRULY HUNGER and THIRST for RIGHTEOUSNESS! No matter what we have to give up or lose in the process! ONLY THEN will we truly be Satisfied in Jesus!