Posts Tagged: gnawing hungers

“Gnawing Hungers”

On March 22, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer


One of my recent online readings challenged me in the following manner: “List your gnawing hungers. How can they best be satisfied?”  https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/are-you-hungry-start-retreat, accessed 03-17-2019.

So I did list them—or at least the ones I could identify!  I will not embarrass you or myself by printing my entire list.  Some of my “gnawing hungers” neither can nor should be satisfied.  Addictive, sinful hungers will never be fulfilled until the addict/sinner is completely consumed.  I think that is another name for “Hell.”

Jesus, according to the Sermon on the Mount, said that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.  Indeed, they will be blessed (Matthew 5:6).  So, it would appear that not all hungers gnaw on us.  There are blessed, fulfilling hungers too.

But what is the meaning of this “righteousness” for which we are to hunger?

Righteousness means many things in the Bible.  Here is a partial list:

  • Right behavior, which includes treating other people with fairness and generosity.
  • Right relationships with God and other people.
  • God declaring us righteous, because of Christ.
  • God making us righteous, once we have been declared righteous.

All of that seems to be a worthy form of hunger.

It is interesting that, in the Greek, the word “hungering” is in the present tense, which may suggest that this hunger is a continual or ongoing hunger.  This is hunger that satisfies, just by being there.  It does not cease, but it is filled, even as it continues.  A strange hunger, this!

I like sweets and other junk food.  I like them a lot, and I like a lot of them.  Perhaps my gnawing “hungers” (or, more accurately, “appetites”) would gnaw less if I were to have a continual hunger for righteousness.

Let the Hunger Game begin in earnest!

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