Matthew 5:5-6 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

The blessed are kind and gentle people. They lack the kind of aggressiveness and self-promotion so many successful people seem to have. “Well, this can’t be right,” we might think. “Meek people are going to inherit the earth? Doesn’t everything in our experience say just the opposite?”

It’s true that the meek and gentle may have less than the rough and aggressive. They may be more likely to get run over or taken advantage of.

But step back a moment, and look at some of the world’s ambitious power-brokers and gazillionaires. I won’t name names, but how much do they really enjoy their gigantic piece of the pie? How much of their lives aren’t consumed by scandals, lawsuits, squabbles, personal attacks, public shame, and a thirst for more that never seems truly content? You read the covers of the tabloids in the checkout line.

The meek may have only their daily bread, just enough to live on. But they live in the contentment that God has provided all they need, and the confidence that God will continue to provide. They have inherited the earth, because they can enjoy what they have right now. Contentment is blessing.

Even in their contentment, those God blesses may hunger and thirst: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” These people want to do what is right. They try to live a righteous life. They want it more than anything.

But they have come to realize that we lack a righteousness of our own. So God gives them a better righteousness. He declares them not guilty for Jesus’ sake. He gives them credit for Jesus’ righteous life. He fills them with a righteousness more perfect and more powerful than anything they could have attempted on their own. The more they hunger and thirst for righteousness, the more God fills them. The more God fills them with righteousness, they more they hunger and thirst for it. Ever hungry, ever filled—It is a blessing to be both.