Have you ever felt really hungry?  You may not have eaten for quite some time and your stomach told you that it needed some food. Without food you can’t live, can you? That’s why your body gets hungry when it hasn’t had food for a long time. You need that food to stay alive. In the same way you also need water to stay alive. If you don’t drink, you get really thirsty.

When Jesus told his disciples that they must hunger and thirst for righteousness, he was telling them that they must really want righteousness, and must seek it always, because God’s people cannot live without righteousness. Righteousness is essential for life. To live, we need righteousness.

What is this righteousness that we must desire? We must long to be free from sin. We must hunger for the forgiveness of sins. We must desire to live close to the Lord. We must want God’s grace and love to fill our lives. We must hunger and thirst for God himself. We must long to live a life in which we obey God.

Jesus promises us that if we hunger and thirst for these things, then we will be filled. We will receive God’s love and forgiveness, his grace and care. God always fills his hungry children. But you must also keep hungering, keep wanting, keep asking for more of God’s love and grace. And he will keep filling you with his love, grace and forgiveness. Just like a fountain keeps pouring water into a stream, so God will continue to fill you.

It sounds strange, doesn’t it? We need to keep being hungry, while at the same time the Lord will keep filling us. How can we be hungry at the same time as we are being filled? It’s a little bit like a box of chocolates. You eat one and you keep wanting more and more. And yet the one chocolate you did have tasted great. So, while the chocolate satisfies you, you continue to want more and more.

Reflection with your child:

What must we be hungry and thirsty for?