Blessed are the hungry.

     As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
                                                                                                                     Psalm 42:1,2  (ASV).

     And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
                                                                                                                      Jer. 29:13 (ASV).

     And without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto him; For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.
                                                                                                                       Heb 11:6 (ASV).

     Our portion, our great reward,  the one thing needful is God himself. everything thing else pales in comparison. The greatest thing that anyone can experience is to be swallowed up by God, to take hold of what He took hold of us for (Phil. 3:12). In this passage of scripture we see the Apostle Paul in his pursuit of God. He counted all things loss for the sake of knowing Christ. His life was consumed by one thing and one thing only pressing on to the goal, following the call of God. His whole life consisted in this one thing. All he suffered, all he accomplished, all of his plans and purposes, all fit into his one great pursuit.
     To be driven in such a manner requires a strong desire, a hunger and thirst after the object of our pursuit. God has revealed Himself to each one of us, He has set eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:12), as the text in Psalm 42 goes on to say, deep calls unto deep, He is calling. Without His call, without the drawing of the Holy Spirit, we would not seek after Him. We are too selfish in and of ourselves. In our pursuit to find happiness, we look to the world, but never to God. Sin has blinded our eyes, and if not for the grace and mercy of God, we would remain in a blind pursuit of what can never satisfy. As the Spirit brings us to the cross of Christ, we enter into this pursuit of knowing Him, A spiritual hunger being awakened in us once again. Just as a body needs food to thrive, and live, the spirit needs God to thrive and live. A body that does not hunger does not eat, and will eventually die. In the same way a soul that does not hunger for God, will soon cease to live as well.
    We must, like Paul, press forward, there can be no standing still as the call goes forth. We must keep our eyes upon Christ. To get them off Him is to place them on the things of the world. Worldly things, like junk food, only diminish our appetites. Our pursuit of God must be all consuming. We must seek Him with all of our heart if we would find Him. We pursue hobbies, sports, jobs, careers, etc. with reckless abandon, yet spend very little time seeking God. Sadly, often when we say we seek Him, it is not Him we seek, but something we want Him to do for us. There is a huge difference between seeking the face of God, and seeking His hand. What God is calling out is "Seek Me! Don't seek things, seek Me!"
     We do not need to fear that by seeking God we will find ourselves neglected, that somehow our needs will not be met, that we won't be able to bring our requests before God. We will find that He will meet our needs as we pursue Him (Matt. 6:33), and like Paul we will find that our needs, wants and prayers will change as we count all things loss for the sake of knowing Him. And even if we had nothing at all we still have our portion, God himself.