Friday 8th May

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

My father who was brought up in the country around dogs and had owned one for the most of his life had a saying that only later I understood. “A hungry dog is a healthy dog”.  Hunger in a dog is a sign of good health and a balance of diet and exercise, when a dog is off its food that’s the time to be concerned.

It is the same for people, and it’s true spiritually as well. Spiritual hunger, a thirst for righteousness is a sign of spiritual health. The danger for those of us who have come to Christ in faith and found that he satisfies our hunger for righteousness is that through time and carelessness we lose our spiritual appetite. We have become used to little bite sized doses of spiritual food, enough to keep hunger at bay but not enough to deeply satisfy. A kind of a spiritual “big mac”, it doesn’t really satisfy and isn’t really nourishing but it spoils our meal. That’s even the danger of a post such as this we think we can get by on it, a little “thought for the day”.

​No I hope that after you read this over lunch, with your coffee or on the bus.... not that you should be on the bus at the moment, that you will sit down later and feed your soul with time to dwell in a deeper way on  these and other words of Scripture. If you do that God will not disappoint you but satisfy the hunger and give growth in Jesus as you banquet on his truth. Spiritual hunger is good and spiritual exercise will keep the appetite keen and promote spiritual health; go on then and serve him in whatever you do today. Put the word into practice.

PRAYER 
Lord when I fill my life with things other than you and lose my appetite for righteousness cause me to hunger, make the things I’ve substituted for you unfulfilling. Only you can truly satisfy.  AMEN

LISTEN