8 Resolutions Jesus Would Be Happy WithSample

4. Resolve to Desire Righteousness

By now, it’s clear that Jesus isn’t handing out inspirational slogans in the Sermon on the Mount.

He’s not giving us goals to grind toward. He’s revealing what it looks like when heaven starts breaking into earth; when a human soul wakes up to the reality of God’s kingdom.

The first three beatitudes are all about surrender.

Poor in spirit, we come empty.

Those who mourn, we grieve what’s wrong.

The meek, we let go of control.

And then comes the turn.

After we empty ourselves of ego, self-sufficiency, and spiritual performance, something new rises up…a hunger.

A deep, holy ache for the world to be made right.

For our hearts to be made clean.

For relationships to heal.

For injustice to be undone.

For God to come close.

That’s the hunger Jesus blesses.

Not spiritual curiosity. Not vague interest.

But hunger. The kind that lives in your bones.

Like a starving man looking for bread.

Like a parched woman reaching for water.

In the first century, hunger and thirst weren’t metaphors; they were daily realities. There were no grocery stores or water bottles. To hunger and thirst was to be desperate for survival. And that’s the word Jesus uses to describe the kind of longing He wants to awaken in us.

Not performance.

Not perfection.

But desire.

Desire for God.

Desire for righteousness.

The Greek word for righteousness, “dikaiosynē,” is bigger than we think. It’s not just about being personally good. It’s about being rightly related–to God, to people, to the world. It’s inner integrity, outer justice, and whole-life alignment with God’s design. It’s shalom, God’s peace, where everything flourishes.

To hunger for righteousness is to want God to set everything right…

In me.

In my community.

In the broken systems I live in.

In the parts of life I can’t fix.

And Jesus says, That hunger? That thirst? That ache?

“You will be filled.”

The word for filled, “chortazō,” means completely satisfied, like a feast that leaves you full to the brim. Not a nibble. Not a sample. Satisfaction. Jesus is promising that when your deepest longing is for Him and His kingdom, He will meet you there. Not always instantly. Not always the way you expect.

But fully.

Right now, the Holy Spirit satisfies us with glimpses, peace in the middle of chaos, conviction that leads to freedom, and comfort in grief. But we’re also waiting. Waiting for the day when everything broken is made whole. When, as 2 Peter 3:13 says, “righteousness dwells on the earth.”

This beatitude holds a holy tension…

The more we taste, the more we long.

The more we’re filled, the more we want.

Not because we’re empty, but because we’ve encountered something too good to get enough of.

“You have made us for Yourself,” Augustine said, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (1) In other words, the hunger itself is a sign of life. It’s not something to be ashamed of; it’s the evidence that the Spirit is alive in you.

So let it shape you.

Let it guide your prayers.

Let it keep you awake in a world that wants to sedate you with comfort and noise.

Hunger for righteousness.

Thirst for justice.

Long for the love of God to flow through your life like living water.

Because in the end, that hunger will be satisfied—not by success or achievement, but by Jesus Himself, the Bread of Life, the Living Water, the Righteous One.

Prayer

Jesus, I don’t want to settle. Awaken in me a deeper hunger, for Your truth, Your justice, Your presence. I confess the places where I’ve tried to fill the ache with lesser things. Shape me with holy desire. Make me restless for more of You. Let my longing become a prayer You’re eager to answer. Fill me with Your righteousness, not just for me, but for the world through me. Amen.

Reflection

Write down one area of your life where you long to see more of God’s righteousness and pray specifically for His Spirit to shape you there.

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(1) Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)