Prayer to Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV).

Friend, do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Are you truly hungry for Jesus?

“How would I know if I am hungry and thirsty for God or not?” you ask?

Great question. When you hunger and thirst after righteousness–which means hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ Himself, for He IS Righteousness Incarnate–it looks like this:

• You want God to change you to become more like Him.
• You desire Him and think about Him always.
• Your soul pants after Him. You crave Him so much that your thoughts, words, and actions always turn toward Him.
• Your craving brings you to His feet. You rise from your bed early to read His Word, and to seek Him in prayer, worship, and even fasting.
• You cry out to God with desperation–begging Him to conform you to the image of Christ. You know you don’t have to beg, but your passion is such that you cannot do anything else.

Friend, when you hunger and thirst after righteousness, God does a lot of quick work in your life.

Of course, there are also works God does slowly in your life at the same time. People say that we’re a microwave generation, but we serve a “slow-cooker” God … and that’s certainly true. Some processes simply take longer than others.

However, when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, your passion drives you to seek Him and beg Him to change you. And when you cry out to Him with that kind of fervor, His grace comes upon you and fills you up. After all, remember His promise:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV).

And this is a promise that God fulfills both immediately and over time:

• He fulfills it immediately when you begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness because He meets you immediately in your time alone with Him. He will fill you up, comfort you, encourage you, and wreck you with love for Himself.
• But He will also fill you up on an ongoing basis, more and more each day, as you continue to hunger and thirst after righteousness. He will take you from glory to glory, faith to faith, strength to strength, and hope to hope. (In other words, He will take you from one level of fullness to the next, much higher level of fullness over time.)

However, sometimes our love for God can grow cold. And Jesus doesn’t like it when that happens.

Look at what He said in the book of Revelation about the people who were lukewarm toward Him:

Basically, this means that, if we are not burning with passion for Jesus, we are lukewarm …

… And Jesus hates lukewarm-ness. He loves YOU, but He hates anything lukewarm. If you’re a sinner who is cold toward Him, the Father can draw you. If you’re hot toward Him, He can fill you. But if you’re lukewarm, and you just don’t care about Him at all … He will spew you out of His mouth.

That’s pretty rough, right? But it is the truth.

The good news is that our loving God will HELP you to burn for Him if you ask Him to do so.

Remember that Jesus told us we are not able to do even the smallest little thing without His help, but that He WILL help us do all things through Himself:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NKJV).

And also:

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).

So you don’t have to try and conjure up passion for Jesus on your own. All you have to do is ask God to help you burn for Him, and He will.

When you ask Him to do so, Jesus will take away your lukewarmness and fill you with passionate love for the One who died on the cross for you. He will help you to hunger and thirst after righteousness like you should … and like His love for you deserves.

All you have to do is ask.

So are you ready to ask? Are you ready to ask God to help you hunger and thirst for righteousness, so that you can be filled? Are you ready to pray and keep praying until you burn for God with every breath you take, and with every fiber of your being?

If so, pray this sample prayer to hunger and thirst after righteousness today:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus’ name.

Father God, thank You for this day. Thank You for loving me and taking care of me always. Thank You that I can rest in You today and seek You first, and all these things that I need shall be added to me. I praise You, for You are holy and mighty and are the only God worth seeking–the only true God in heaven or on earth.

Abba Father, Your Word says that we should hunger and thirst for righteousness.

You also said that those who do hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. Father, I want that to be me. I want to be as close to You as it’s possible to get, and I know that I have to desire You with all my heart–desiring nothing above You–in order to be that close.

Therefore, Holy Father, I ask today in Jesus’ name that You would help me to hunger and thirst after righteousness:

• Please make me hungry for You.
• Help me to desire You more than I desire anything else in the whole world.
• Help me to seek You more than I have ever sought You before.
• Help me to seek You with more passion, ardor, love, and fervency than I use to seek anything else or anyone else.
• Please have first place in my heart.
• Help me to long for You at all times–every moment of every day.
• Fill my heart with the fullness of joy that comes in Your presence.
• Help me to focus on You constantly in my thoughts, prayers, words, actions, relationships, finances, and priorities.

And Father, as I hunger and thirst for righteousness–which is hunger and thirst for YOU, for You ARE righteousness itself–then I ask that You would fill me up:

• Fill me with Your Holy Spirit anew and afresh, today and every day.
• Baptize me in Your love and power.
• Fill me with that peace that passes understanding.
• Let Your anointing, and only Your anointing, ooze and slosh out of me at all times.

Abba Father, You deserve all my affection, all my passion, and all of my effort.

Everything I am and all that I have should be spent on seeking You. So please, Lord Jesus, Holy Father, and Holy Spirit: fill me up with everything You are and everything You have:

• Help me to seek You early and late, and I shall find You.
• Help me to love You with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength–and to love my neighbor as myself.
• Teach me to walk with You and talk with You.
• Give me this one thing: that I would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold Your beauty and to inquire in Your temple.

Thank You, Holy Abba Father. Thank You, Lord Jesus. And thank You, precious Holy Spirit. Thank You for helping me to hunger and thirst after righteousness, for I know that You will answer my prayer and I will be filled. Thank You.

In Jesus’ holy and precious name I pray, amen.”

Friend, never be afraid to make Jesus Christ the love and pursuit of your life.

He is worth giving your all for. He is everything, and He is the only One who can make you happy–the only one who can truly fill the inner void with which each of us were created.

Friend, do you hunger and thirst after righteousness today? Or, do you want to? If you prayed the prayer above, God will help you. Keep on asking Him to help you hunger and thirst for righteousness–for Himself–and He will give you that hunger in your spirit, soul, and body.

Leave a comment below if you prayed this prayer to hunger and thirst after righteousness today!