God-Given Desires for Survival

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

A couple of years ago one of my sons and I went bow hunting for elk in northern Colorado. We were guided up a mountain by a young man who was 27 or 28 years-old at the time. Little did I know that he is part mountain goat. My son and he traipsed the sixteen-mile trek up and down the mountain with ease. But this overweight and out of shape old man offered prayers to God up and down the mountain that I would simply survive the hike. I even prayed that we would not see an elk because, not only would I not have been able to steady myself for a reasonable shot, we would also have to carry the animal out in portions, requiring additional trips back up and down the mountain. As we made our way to the bottom of the mountain at the end of the day, with energy and water levels depleted, I was ravenous for food and thirsting for something to drink.

Our Creator God designed our bodies to survive. Part of the survival process involves appetites for food and water when we are in need of nutrition and hydration. Our spiritual life is similar. God graciously opens our hearts and minds to the awareness of the need to satisfy our souls with truth and righteousness.

The spiritual sustenance we need, we cannot provide on our own. The provision comes from God as He stirs the awareness of our deficiencies. We long for the righteousness we don’t have. But the Lord grants His righteousness to us as we seek it from Him with prayerful humility and dependence. The beatitude Jesus shares tells us that we are delightfully benefited by the whetting of our spiritual appetites that expose our emptiness and drive us to the life and truth of Jesus that satisfies our souls. We don’t produce righteousness to earn God’s favor. We seek the righteousness God provides us through Jesus because we are being granted His favor.

Praise God for the desires He naturally plants within us for survival. We need the desires of hunger and thirst to move us from lacking food and water to having food and water to carry on physically. We need the hunger and thirst of our souls to move us from lacking righteousness to having righteousness through the provision of gospel life and truth in Jesus. The Lord’s “…divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through our knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” (2 Peter 1:3).

Is your soul hungering and thirsting? Keep looking and pressing into the gospel truth found in Jesus. He alone is the satisfaction of what our soul craves. Bon appétit!