Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
You Are as Close to God as You Want To Be
Taste is a funny thing. Not everyone likes the same thing. Why would there be differences in taste? Honey is always sweet. Vinegar is always sour. Lemons are always bitter. Everyone tastes those things in the same way, yet not everyone likes those things equally. In fact, for many things that would include those ingredients, the taste for them must be cultivated.
There is a drink called Verners ginger ale that used to be available only in Michigan, although now you can get it anywhere. If I took a poll of the people who have tried it, people would either love it or hate it. Why do some people love it and some people hate it? In large part, it is because of tastes that have been cultivated.
What kind of tastes are you cultivating in your life today? This is not just about tastes for soda, music, books, or others things. It is a question of what it is for which you have a real appetite? Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” I am filled with that for which I have an appetite.
James says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” No matter how removed you may feel from God, God loves you, and you are as close to God as you want to be. That may sound cruel because there is an ebb and flow to life. Maybe you feel like your relationship with God is out of your hands. However, God is immutable, and He, amazingly, always wants fellowship with mere mortals like us.
When I say that you are as close to God as you want to be, can you even control what you want? Most of us think that we can’t. It is like trying to control your emotions. It is like my saying, “You must love Verners ginger ale.” How can you control your emotions and what you want? That is a valid question. Part of the answer is that, in large part, we cultivate our appetites.
There are things that we don’t naturally like for which we have cultivated a taste, and there are things that we might naturally like that we have intentionally curbed. I think about exercise. Does anyone enjoy running five miles a day? Yes, there are people who love doing such things. I do not know that that kind of exercise is a naturally, intrinsically pleasurable thing, but there are people who love running long distances because they have cultivated the taste for it.
Let’s take that from the mundane to the sublime. Our love for God and righteousness is something for which we have an appetite as we cultivate it. You need God. God loves you, and you cultivate your love for Him as you make the right choices. The real question is, “What are you doing to cultivate a hunger and thirst for righteousness and for the God Who is the source of such things?”
Are you cultivating a love for the Bible? Are you reading it? Are you cultivating the turning of your desires, ambitions, and worries over to God in prayer? Are you cultivating an awareness of God’s presence in your life?
Life is largely a matter of the tastes we cultivate and the things with which we fill our lives. Jesus says, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”