Luke 6: 21 Hungry, and not on a diet!

21God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.

I have no doubt Jesus intends to bless those who are physically hungry in this life. I also have no doubt that he means something much more here, though I have a hard time imagining something more than being physically hungry all the time.

I’m quite confident he’s talking about spiritual hunger. Every single person on the face of the earth is spiritually hungry. We may try to fill that space with all kinds of things. Some turn to business pursuits, some to drugs, alcohol, sex, who knows what. We are all hungry.

The desire for food when you are truly hungry must be unimaginable. I’ve never gone hungry for more than a day or two, and then it was my own choice. So imagine that type of desire to be close to God. That is our true desire. It’s every person’s true desire.

So how do we become truly spiritually hungry? I think it goes back to yesterday’s lesson about poverty. We get rid of the things in our lives that we try to fill that hunger with, the stuff that really doesn’t matter, then we’re left with what does matter. I believe we will be left with a hunger that we know only God can fill and then we are left with blessing, upon blessing, upon blessing.

Lord help me to be truly hungry, and help me to know that my hunger can only be satisfied by you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that the abundance of your spirit may overflow and begin to fill the hungry people around me.