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

The first four beatitudes, of which this is the last, all speak to the blessings of dependence. To be spiritually poor is to depend on God for everything you need. To mourn the brokenness of this world and ourselves is to depend on God for the final resolution. To be meek is to depend on God’s power rather than our own. And the final illustration of dependence is that of hunger. God uses the common experiences of hunger and thirst to encourage us in the way of dependence and embracing this will lead to better kingdom leadership. Let’s answer three quick questions, reflect on the answers for spiritual leadership, and then I offer one action step to help cultivate this value in your life.

What Does This Mean?

First, what does it mean to hunger and thirst? You want food and water (insightful, I know). But think of the other implications of those words. It reflects a daily need, a daily desire, and a daily dependence. You need food and water every day and that will never change. Because you need it, you desire it and seek it out. Sometimes your cravings are so powerful that you’ll go out of your way just to get a certain type of food, even if its less convenient and more costly. It is a daily dependence, because at the end of the day, that provision is a gift from God. In summary, when you are hungry for something, you want it and you’ll go after it.

Second, what does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Leaders hunger for a lot of things- status, money, power, fame, legacy. But kingdom leaders, who are dependent on God, hunger for righteousness. Righteousness simply describes living life pleasing to God. Righteousness is the evidence of that moral transformation in a person’s life, when God changes them to live more like Jesus. Kingdom leaders, and blessed leaders, crave and pursue righteousness in their daily lives. They want to live more like Jesus as much as they want to eat. They hunger for it, meaning they know their lack of it and they go after it with all they have. True righteousness is first an appetite.

Third, what does it mean that they shall be filled? Jesus concludes the beatitude with the reason for blessing. The one who is hungry for righteousness is blessed because he is filled. Filled with what? Righteousness. To illustrate, if you are hungry for a cheeseburger, you will seek out and eat a cheeseburger, what are you filled with? A double bacon cheeseburger! The blessing of hungering for righteousness is that you will actually get it and be filled with it. It will consume your life and change the way you live. Also note the passive nature of “you will be filled.” The idea is that God is the one doing the filling and the feeding. God will provide you with a righteousness that is not of your own, not that you could have earned, but that you are dependent on God for daily.

Spiritual Appetites

Spiritual leadership is about far more than actions and agendas. It is about appetites. Now just as you are hungry every day, you have spiritual appetites every day, and they are not always for good things. There is no hunger neutrality. You will naturally pursue those appetites and they will lead you either to places of blessing or of difficulty. One of the greatest influences on your leadership is your appetite.

If you crave attention, you will lead like you want everyone to notice you.

If you crave money, you will lead with an eye towards unrighteous gain.

If you crave approval, you will lead to never offend and always appease.

If you crave ease and comfort, you will lead lazily and without inspiration.

This had led to many ministry earthquakes in our day, where leaders crumbled and caved in under the weight of their own ambitions. They did not ultimately fall because of their aptitude, but their appetite. Show me a spiritual leader who is unrighteous and I’ll show you a leader who, somewhere along the way, lost his appetite for righteousness and began to crave something else under the sun. Every issue of character is first an issue of appetite.

So the question at hand is, “What are you hungry for?” And perhaps just as important, “how badly do you want it?” Most ministry leaders truly are hungry for righteousness. They love and trust Jesus and want to please them. But for those who struggle, their appetite for God is outpaced by these other appetites. Or on the other hand, they have rightly put those desires away but still they have become complacent in their spiritual walk. If you have felt the tug of other appetites like I have, consider this action step.

Action Step

The good news is that appetites can be cultivated. All through growing up and even beyond college, I drank soda constantly. A couple years ago, after talking to a friend with a similar experience, I soda was making me feel terrible, so I cut it out. At first it was challenging, because I was so used to it. But within a few months, I did not want it anymore and now I don’t even think about it. With some discipline, my appetite changed.

One of the best ways to cultivate spiritual appetites is to fast. Fasting, to temporarily sustain from food, starves the body of its desires and reminds the soul of our deepest needs met by God. It trains the appetites of our soul, so that we long for God more than this world. So prayerfully look at your calendar and plan some fasts in the coming months. Ask God to do a work in your heart on that day. And when the day comes, when you feel hungry at lunchtime, pray that God would give you a hunger for righteousness. You will be blessed.