Mensa Otabil - God Fills the Hungry (10/05/2025)
Matthew 5:6 «Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.» We can recognize these words of Jesus Christ as the opening of His Sermon on the Mount, or the opening of the Beatitudes, when He taught extensively about the values of His kingdom and how His kingdom functions. Jesus underpins hunger and thirst as foundational to our pursuit of righteousness. That means if we want to live for God, there has to be a hunger for it.
And that is a very instructive point because when you are hungry for something, your appetite is greater for it. When you are not hungry for it, you have no appetite for it. No matter how sumptuous a table is set before you with the best delicacies of food, if you are satisfied, if your stomach is full, you would not eat any of it. But if you are hungry, then you can eat what is set before you.
So, God is saying if we are full of ourselves, if we are full of our own righteousness, if we think we are righteous by ourselves, that we are okay, and we don’t need God, we can manage our own lives and there is no thirst for us to know God, to serve Him, and to do His will, then even the death of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice on Calvary, and all that Christ has made available to us are meaningless, because we have no need for what He offers us. So, if we want to grow spiritually, increase in God, and become godly in our lives, then there has to be a constant hunger in our hearts for the things of God. No matter how much God teaches us, no matter how much we know of Him, no matter how much we’ve experienced Him, no matter how long we have been Christians and how many years we’ve lived for the Lord, our hunger for God must be constant.
When we have this hunger for God, a constant hunger to say, «Lord, I want to know You. God, I want to understand Your Word. God, I want to get close to You,» then any time we pick up the Bible, we would not say, «Oh, I know it; I’ve read it for 40 years and know everything in it.» When you have hunger, then even after 40 years, it’s still fresh for you, it satisfies you, and it speaks to you.
There are people who go to church and after some time they say, «Well, you know, I’ve been going to church for a very long time.» The hunger to be in the presence of God, to be in the company of other believers, to be in a place where God is worshiped, goes. When you lose that hunger, then going to church will also dissipate in your life. You can reach a point in your Christian life where you don’t desire to go to church any longer, you don’t desire to be among believers any longer because you feel that your hunger has been satisfied.
Jesus is saying, «Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.» No matter how many years you’ve been going to church, you have to have a thirst for going into the presence of the Lord, worshiping with other believers, and being in the company and fellowship of people who love God and seek to please Him.
Prayer, no matter how long you’ve prayed and how many times you’ve prayed, if you don’t have a hunger and thirst to talk to God and to be in His presence, then after some time you might say, «Well, you know, I’ve prayed enough to last me a lifetime.» Can that happen? No matter how much you eat today, the food will digest, exit your system, and you will be hungry again. The same thing applies: no matter how much you pray today, no matter how many hours you pray today, it will exit your system. You need to pray again.
No matter how much Bible you consume today, it will exit your system, and no matter how much you attend church and how many hours you are in church today, you are still going to need to go to church because whatever we put in gets out, and we need to refill and top up. There is no food that satisfies us permanently. So, spiritually, there is no spiritual discipline that we undergo that meets all our spiritual needs. Hunger and thirst for God; continue to desire Him, continue to desire to do His will, continue to desire to live a holy life, continue to desire to pray and be in the presence of God, continue to desire to go to church, continue to desire the gifts of God. Your spiritual hunger must always be high so that you will be filled with all of the fullness of the Lord.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I hunger and thirst for You and Your will. Fill my life with Your fullness. In Jesus' name, Amen.»
May the Lord fill you with His fullness every day. I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.