Healthy Appetite — A LifeWords Devotion

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (NIV)

We can sadly see our faith journey as just another part of our wider life. We dabble in the shallows rather than plunging into the depths. In our paddling in the shallows, we forget there is a vast and deep ocean to enjoy.

Perhaps it is because our appetites are dulled and spoiled. Many of us can recall our younger days when we were warned not to eat treats between meals as it would spoil our appetite. Our preoccupation with so many diverse things may cause us to lack a desire to go deeper into Jesus’ sort of life.

This hungering and thirsting is an ongoing thing, not just a short spurt of enthusiasm, just as one meal doesn’t abolish our appetite forever. It is a relentless desire to go Jesus’ way, to advance his cause. Of course, other things matter, but that desire matters most.

Being half hearted about Jesus has us in the worst of all worlds. We know enough of Jesus to realise he doesn’t want us to go astray. But we don’t know him well enough to let that desire to follow him shape our lives. Stuck halfway between the acknowledged pleasures of sin and the profound pleasures of Jesus.

If we do, with Jesus’ help, seek to take hold of the right sort of living, we will be empowered to do so. We will fall short, but we are not given an impossible task either. Ask him to give you that hunger. Trust him to satisfy it.