Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Our souls have a veracious appetite. The appetite of our soul for feeling, pleasure, story, and excitement drives us down a never-ending path of binge watching episode after episode of program after program. In this lust for comfort, pleasure, and escape, our souls tragically remain conspicuously empty.
Jesus promises satisfaction for our souls, but this satisfaction requires something of us in a way that the mechanisms of this world (like binge watching) do not. The satisfaction that our souls long for comes through self-discipline, surrender, and trust.
It first comes through self-discipline as we must command our souls to long for right standing before God. This desire for right standing before God births from a dissatisfaction for the emptiness of this world and a fatigue that comes from the constant eating of empty episodes and the false filling that this world promises.
Second, the satisfaction of our souls comes through surrender. This surrender looks like understanding that we cannot fill ourselves. While we may command our souls to long after righteousness, we cannot achieve this righteousness on our own. We must lay down our belief that the change that we need and the filling that our emptiness demands does not come through human effort. We must lay down our tools to allow Him to do the work in us.
Finally, satisfaction comes only through trust. The desire for right standing before God must come from a belief that what Jesus says is true. Without trust, we will reject the words of Jesus and turn back to the familiar snacks of this world that neither fill nor satisfy. Without trust, we will wait only moments for the Lord to do the work in us that satisfies before picking up our tools of self-manipulation once again. This choice to choose righteousness requires a daily and perhaps hourly decision as the enticement of this world does not cease. The flashy, entertaining, emptiness of this world shouts all the louder the moment we turn away from it.
Righteousness is a gift from God as is the satisfaction that comes from it. Gifts must be received.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to stop striving. Stop attempting to gain satisfaction by human means. Perhaps today God invites you to begin denying your soul of the emptiness of this world. Maybe God is calling you to surrender yet another area of your life. Maybe you have fallen back into an old pattern and need to repent and surrender once more. Perhaps it is time to trust Him more.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 98-100.