Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6
The true bread of life is found only in Christ. Those who do not recognize that the bounties of rich grace, the heavenly banquet, have been prepared at an infinite cost to satisfy those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will not be refreshed….
“Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger.” …
Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are filled with a longing desire to become Christlike in character, to be assimilated to His image, to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment. We should ever cultivate an earnest desire for the righteousness of Christ. No temporal wants should attract and divert the mind to such a degree that we should not experience this soul hunger to possess the attributes of Christ…. When in trouble and affliction, the soul longs for the love and power of God. There is an intense desire for assurance, for hope, for faith, for confidence. We should seek for pardon, for peace, for the righteousness of Christ…. Every soul who seeks the Lord with the whole heart is hungering and thirsting after righteousness….
The soul hunger will be satisfied when our hearts are emptied of pride, vanity, and selfishness; for faith will then appropriate the promises of God, and Christ will supply the vacuum and abide in the heart. There will be a new song in the mouth, for the word will be fulfilled, “A new heart also will I give you.” The testimony of the believer will be, “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” …
Without Christ the hunger and thirst of the soul would remain unsatisfied. The feeling of want, the craving after something not temporal, not tainted with earthliness and commonness, could never be appeased. The mind must grasp something higher and purer than anything that can be found in this world….
Christ was crucified for the sin of the world, and after His resurrection and ascension all the world were invited to look to Him and live. We are enjoined to look at the things unseen, to keep before the mind’s eye the most vivid images of eternal realities, that by beholding we may become changed into the image of Christ.—Signs of the Times, August 29, 1895.