There is a longing in you that no achievement, relationship, or experience can fully satisfy. Jesus spoke directly to that ache when He pronounced a blessing on those who ache not merely for “more” in life, but for something very specific: righteousness. He spoke of a hunger and thirst that goes beyond wanting to feel spiritual, respectable, or comfortable—and instead longs to actually be right with God, to live in a way that pleases Him, and to see His ways prevail in your heart and in the world. That kind of hunger, He said, will not be ignored—and it will not be disappointed.

A Different Kind of Hunger

Listen to His promise: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Jesus is not describing a casual preference, like choosing a snack; He is talking about the desperation of an empty stomach and a parched throat. Righteousness—being in right standing with God and walking in His ways—is not meant to be a hobby on the side of your life. It is meant to be the main course. When you feel the inner restlessness that says, “There has to be more than this,” that is an invitation from God to redirect your appetite toward Him.

Scripture often pictures our relationship with God in terms of desire. The psalmist says his soul pants for God like a deer for streams of water (Psalm 42:1–2). Paul speaks of pressing on to know Christ, counting everything else as loss compared to knowing Him (Philippians 3:7–10). This is what Jesus is blessing: not the person who feels already satisfied with their own goodness, but the one who knows they are spiritually needy and desperately wants God’s will, God’s character, and God’s approval more than anything else. That hunger is itself evidence that God is already at work in you.

What Righteousness Really Looks Like

Righteousness begins with what God does for you, not what you do for Him. On your own, you cannot earn a right standing before a holy God. That is why the good news of the gospel is that God gives righteousness as a gift, through faith in Jesus. Christ lived the perfect life you have not lived and died the death your sins deserved, so that in Him you are counted righteous before God (see 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:21–26). To hunger for righteousness is, first of all, to hunger for Christ Himself—to be found in Him, forgiven, cleansed, and accepted.

But righteousness is also about what God produces in you. Those who are made right with God are called to live righteous lives—lives that reflect His character in real choices, real relationships, and real obedience. Peter calls believers to be holy in all their conduct because the One who called them is holy (1 Peter 1:15–16). The Spirit works in you to grow love, purity, honesty, courage, and compassion. So when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you are longing both to rest in Christ’s finished work for you and to see His holy life increasingly displayed through you.

Filled, Yet Still Longing

Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness “will be filled.” There is a real satisfaction God gives even now. When you turn from sin and trust Christ, the guilt that once weighed you down is lifted. When you surrender a stubborn habit or obey in a hard area, there is a deep joy that no sin can match. When you open Scripture and God speaks to your situation, you taste something better than the world has to offer. Every step of obedience, every fresh glimpse of Christ, is a small but real filling of your soul.

Yet there is also a holy dissatisfaction that remains in this life. The more you taste of God, the more you realize how much more of Him there is to know. You begin to notice new areas where you need to grow, fresh ways you need to repent, larger prayers you need to pray. You are filled, but you are not finished. Like Paul, you forget what is behind and reach forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the prize of being fully like Christ and fully with Him (Philippians 3:12–14). This ongoing hunger is not a sign that God has failed to satisfy you, but that He is preparing you for the day when you will be perfectly filled in His presence.

Lord Jesus, thank You for promising to fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Today, stir my heart to desire You above everything else, and strengthen me to choose what pleases You in every part of my life.

Sins of great magnitude may indicate an energy of soul which if turned in a right direction can lead far up the way toward spiritual perfection. Conversely, there is a meanness of soul that inhibits and restricts the scope and intensity of even the most common activities. When such a soul is converted, it may be only to mediocrity.

On his own testimony Paul before his conversion was a great sinner (1 Timothy 1:15). He persecuted Christians with great violence and wrought havoc with the followers of Christ. After his spectacular about-face he turned his magnificent equipment over to the Lord and the whole world knows the result. The same energy of soul that had made him a dangerous enemy of the Christian faith made him a powerful advocate of that faith once his eyes had been opened.

From this we may learn that feebleness and timidity are not to be confused with righteousness. To sin but weakly is not the same as to do good. Lack of moral energy may prevent a man from enjoying himself in sin, but he is in sin nevertheless. His weak effort at neutrality does not deceive God who knows the secrets of every man's heart.

Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death, - 2 Corinthians 7:10

There is a broad distinction between the right and the wrong kind of sorrow for sin. "Godly sorrow" is literally rendered "sorrow according to God’’ which may either mean sorrow which has reference to God, or sorrow which is in accordance with His will; that is to say, which is pleasing to Him. If it is the former, it will be the latter. I prefer to suppose that it is the former sorrow, which has reference to God.

And then, opposite to that, there is another kind of sorrow, which the Apostle calls the "sorrow of the world," which is devoid of that reference to God. Here we have the characteristic difference between the Christian way of looking at my own faults and shortcomings, and the sorrow of the world, which has got no blessing in it, and will never lead to anything like righteousness and peace. It is just this - one has reference to God, puts its sin by His side, sees its blackness relieved against the "fierce light" of the Great White Throne, and the other way has not that reference.

To expand that for a moment, there are plenty of us that, when our sin is behind us, and its bitter fruits are in our hands, are sorry enough for our faults. A man that is lying in the hospital, a wreck, with the sin of his youth gnawing the flesh off his bones, is often enough sorry that he did not live more soberly and chastely and temperately in the past days. That fraudulent bankrupt that has not got his discharge, and has lost his reputation, and can get nobody to lend him money enough to start himself in business again, as he hangs about the streets slouching in his rags, is sorry enough that he did not keep the straight road. The " sorrow of the world " has no thought about God in it at all. The consequences or sin set many a man’s teeth on edge that does not feel any compunction for the wrong that he did. My brother, is that your position?

And then we can come a step further. Crime means the transgression of man’s law; wrong means the transgression of conscience’s law. Some of us would perhaps have to say, "I have done crime." We are all of us quite ready to say, " I have done wrong many a time "; but there are some of you that hesitate to take the other step, and say, "I have done sin," which is the transgression of God’s law.