HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

 HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

Around the Year with Emmet Fox

 

March 29

 

“Blessed are they which do hunger

and thirst after righteousness:

for they shall be filled”

Matthew 5:6

 

Righteousness

is another of the key words of the Bible,

one of those keys that the reader

must have in his possession

if he is to get at the true meaning of the book.

Like earth and meek and comfort,

it is used in a special and definite sense.

Righteousness means not merely right conduct,

but right thinking.

In the Sermon on the Mount,

every clause reiterates the truth

that outer things are but consequences.

As within, so without.

When people awaken

to a knowledge of these truths,

they naturally begin

to apply them in their own lives.

 Realizing at last the vital importance

of "righteousness"

they begin immediately

to try to put their house in order.

The principle involved is simple,

but unfortunately, the exemplifying of it

is anything but easy.

Now, why should this be so?

The answer lies in the potency of habit;

and habits of thinking are at once the most subtle

and the most difficult to break.

Perhaps failure to achieve righteousness

is the failure of half-heartedness;

you long but not too deeply.

Your hunger and thirst

do not rise from a sense of total need.

Have a mental stocktaking

or a review of your life.

It could not happen

that a wholehearted search

for truth and righteousness,

if persevered in,

should not be crowned with success.

God is not mocked,

nor does He mock His children.