“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after

righteousness: for they shall be flled .”— Matthew 5:6 .

BLESSED are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matt. 5:6. The hunger and thirst after
righteousness is the result of the spiritual experience of the first three beatitudes. The recognition of spiritual poverty leads to heart
sorrow for sin, which produces meekness and humility. This vision of the leanness and nakedness of the soul causes a crying out after
God and His righteousness. "The soul hunger for righteousness is God's gift to the meek." -Cambridge Bible. The experience of the
first three steps of the beatitude ladder produces a good spiritual appetite.
A good appetite is a sign of life and health. Only living things hunger and thirst. The loss of appetite is always a sign of sickness and
failing health. Hunger and thirst grow less with diminishing life, and increase with increasing life. With death, the emotions or passions
of hunger and thirst cease altogether. A living tree hungers and thirsts continually, because it is alive. It is said that some trees drink
more than seventy-five gallons of water a day. They lift their drinking water hundreds of feet from down deep in the earth to their
topmost limbs and leaves, and they do it because they are thirsty. Through the same process they obtain the food elements by which
they live and grow. When trees and other living things cease to hunger and thirst, they are dead, and their appetites have died with
them.
A good appetite is a great blessing. It is an evidence of a normal and healthy-body. It makes life more worth while . Those who enjoy
their meals are indeed fortunate; those who find eating a disagreeable duty are to be pitied. A healthy baby is hungry and thirsty
almost all the time, because it is growing. Hunger and thirst are evidences of growth and development. No person can grow and
increase in stature without a good appetite. This is true in the intellectual realm as well as in the physical. Only those who hunger and
thirst for knowledge continue to grow in wisdom and develop in intellectual power.
We owe a great deal to those who have an insatiable appetite for wisdom and knowledge. Most persons lose their mental appetite
early in life, and then fossilize. How true that is of many ministers, teachers, physicians, and others who should above all others
continue to grow intellectually as long as physical life continues! Most persons die mentally long before they die physically. This is a
tragedy; but, then, this is a tragic world.
But our text has special reference to spiritual appetite. However, the same principles obtain here as obtain in the physical and
intellectual realms. Hunger and thirst are absolutely essential to spiritual life and growth. The person who has no appetite for spiritual
things is spiritually dead. The person who has a poor spiritual appetite is spiritually sick. Only he who has a ravenous appetite for the
bread of life and the waters of salvation, and who greatly enjoys his spiritual food and drink, is a normal and healthy Christian. Most
professed Christians in this our day are subnormal. They are suffering from malnutrition. They are spiritually weak and anemic ; it
takes but little to satisfy them. They are very particular about what they eat and when they eat and who feeds them. Many are keeping
alive only because they are spoon fed, for they do not have appetite and energy enough to feed themselves. It is a pathetic situation,
especially when there is a great spiritual banquet spread for them.
The spiritually proud do not hunger and thirst for spiritual food. They already feel perfectly satisfied. They feel well filled, and therefore
have no appetite for more. This was true of the Pharisees in the time of Christ. They felt no need, and they received no benefit from the
bread and water of life that He offered so freely. When Jesus told the Jews that He was the bread of life, and only those who would eat
His flesh and drink His blood could have eternal life, many were offended, "and walked no more with Him." It is for this reason that the
very first blessing is pronounced upon those who feel poor in spirit; that is the first requisite to a good spiritual appetite. Only those
who are made meek and humble because of mourning over their spiritual poverty and leanness of soul, will hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
PART 2

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after

righteousness: for they shall be flled .”— Matthew 5:6 .
What is righteousness?
Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and “God is love.”
1 John 4:16 . It is conformity to the law of God, for “all Thy commandments are righteousness” ( Psalm
119:172 ), and “love is the
fulflling of the law” ( Romans 13:10 ). Righteousness is love, and
love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is
embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.
No human agent can supply that which will satisfy the hunger
and thirst of the soul. But Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door,
and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” “I am the
bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that
believeth on Me shall never thirst.” Revelation 3:20 ; John 6:35 .
We usually say: uuuum that day I was in the spirit coz I prayed and studied my bible like never before, I
experienced that “spiritual high.” When we say this tinenge tichitoti I last had a powerful spiritual meal
some time ago coz we actually recall the experience tichiti “ that day”, which means the spiritual life is not
being fed everyday . Christ actually used these terms: hunger and thirst , so that we could understand
this concept :
As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need
Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and impart
strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life
and vigor , so the soul
must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him and
depending wholly upon Him .
If you have a sense of need in your soul, if you hunger and
thirst after righteousness, this is an evidence that Christ has wrought
upon your heart, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you,
through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is
impossible for you to do for yourself. We need not seek to quench
our thirst at shallow streams; for the great fountain is just above us,
of whose abundant waters we may freely drink, if we will rise a little
higher in the pathway of faith.
The words of God are the wellsprings of life. As you seek unto
those living springs you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought
into communion with Christ. Familiar truths will present themselves
to your mind in a new aspect, texts of Scripture will burst upon you
with a new meaning as a flash of light, you will see the relation of
other truths to the work of redemption, and you will know that Christ
is leading you, a divine Teacher is at your side. You will see kuti I have read this bible passage before
but today God is revealing something totally different. The man who taught us Religious studies (Bible
knowledge) said, “I have been teaching students ma synoptic gospels for quite a number of years but
each time yandinoverenga the chapters I learn something new.”
As the Holy
Spirit opens to you the truth you will treasure up the most precious
experiences and will long to speak to others of the comforting things
that have been revealed to you. When brought into association with
them you will communicate some fresh thought in regard to the
character or the work of Christ. You will have some fresh revelation
of His pitying love to impart to those who love Him and to those
who love Him not.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be flled .”— Matthew 5:6 .

The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draft, and as you
impart you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Have you ever had of these two Shona
statements:
1. Ramba waraira

My mom used to say, “don’t reject the food I will have offered you before you have tasted it.” After
tasting I would then ask for more ndanakirwa nenzwisa . In the first place I will have said NO because
this would be my first time meeting that particular food, but after tasting all my taste buds would agree
kuti this is good food and i would extend my hand to reach out for more.
The same thing applies to our spiritual lives. God says :
Psalms 34:8 “ O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. ”
Sometimes we are not willing to enter into a relationship with our master and God understands because He knows that our perception
or the way we view things was tainted by sin so He gives this invitation : RAMBA WARAIRA
It’s after tasting ( what God Has instore) that we realise what we have been missing and our hearts get surcharged with joy and we
also regret tichiti : if only I had tasted the goodness of the Lord earlier

1. Chipavhurire achakodzwa

This means kuti the one who gives is blessed with more.
The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draft, and as you
impart you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. The more you help others to experience the
love of Christ the more you will be drawn closer to Him
Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. One way of experiencing
these revelations is to have a quality bible study usiri in a hurry. The continual cry of the heart is, “More of
Thee,” and ever the Spirit’s answer is, “Much more.” Romans 5:9, 10 . For our God delights to do
“exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20 . To Jesus, who emptied Himself
for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every
follower of Christ when the
whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. Our Lord Himself
has given the command, “Be flled with the Spirit” ( Ephesians 5:18 ),
and this command is also a promise of its fulfllment . It was the
good pleasure of the Father that in Christ should “all the fullness
dwell,” and “in Him ye are made full.” Colossians 1:19 , R.V.; 2:10,
R.V.