Are you hungry?

Matthew 5:6 (NIV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

I’m currently reading Expecting Miracles: True Stories of God’s Supernatural Power and How You Can Experience It by Heidi and Rolland Baker of Iris Ministries. On page 27-28, two Iris Missions School students write this comment about the verse above:

Our teacher spoke this afternoon about hungering after righteousness, the Kingdom of God. She commented on how differently these Mozambican pastors look at the Scriptures, because the word hunger has a whole other meaning to them. They know that hunger unfulfilled leads to death. These pastors have experienced that hunger. They have a desperation for this righteousness with the same yearning that they have for food. These men and women view the whole Gospel in a different light than we do in the West – the words of Jesus take on different meaning and depth in the eyes of the poor.

The pastors then came and laid hands upon us to pray that we would experience a deep hunger for the Spirit of God. When they prayed, we did not understand all the words, but we could hear the desperation in their voices. We wept. We stood there as the rain poured forth from our souls onto the dry desert of apathy and complacency that cripples us from truly seeking God. Language, culture, skin color, gender, class – all of these are illusory boundaries within the human race. But the Spirit of God can unify any people group who truly call on His name. These Mozambican pastors, though poor in material wealth, possess a wealth we long to draw from and a heart we are constantly learning from.

I can’t really add anything more that would mean much. I’m hungry, are you?

Doug