How do you feel after Thanksgiving dinner?

Stuffed, right? Sated. Glutted. You feel like you won’t need to eat again for days.

But what happens in a few hours? You start rummaging around for leftover turkey or pumpkin pie.

Are you eating again because your first meal was so unsatisfying that you need something else?

No–you’re eating again because your first meal was so good, you want more.

Isn’t it that way with Jesus as well?

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Adrian Rogers points out that “We often think of righteousness as something we do, but righteousness in the Bible is wrapped up in a person whose name is Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is made righteousness for us. When we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we are hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is the bread of life.

When we come to Him, we find that “he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9).

That’s one reason Paul prays, and we can pray for ourselves and each other, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

And you know what verse comes right after this one? It’s one we pull out of context to apply to any number of other things, but it was written in this context: that we might know God’s love and be filled with Him: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Jeremiah prophesied that after Israel returned to the Lord, He would “satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jeremiah 31:25). Other translations say “satiate,” “to satisfy to the full”.

God “redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:4-5).

We can pray with Moses, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).

Now, as we “[behold] the glory of the Lord,” we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Someday, we “shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

We try to fill up with other things. But only Jesus can satisfy our souls. We continually seek His truth, His fellowship, His presence, not because He didn’t satisfy us the first time, but because He satisfied us so well, we want to keep coming.

(I don’t know the folks in this video—I just liked this arrangement. I have a lovely arrangement of this song sung by Sena Rice and Julie Potter on a CD titled Love Lifted Me, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube.)

(This post, especially the first few lines, was inspired by part of a message by Adrian Rogers titled The Secret of Satisfaction.)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)