Few of us have experienced the physical desperation of hunger and thirst as Wally did, floating in a salty ocean with no food or water, his body wasting away. Yet, this vivid image applies to our spiritual lives. Jesus Christ declares in Matthew 5:6 that blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. This promise from Him assures us that if we deeply yearn for His way of life, He will satisfy us with the good and wonderful things it brings. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness means having an ardent desire to become like God. After recognizing what God is and what we are, we fervently want to change, to rid our lives of sin, and to transform our base nature into His noble and perfect character. This beatitude pictures a Christian with an acute awareness of a need in his life that must be filled, yearning for it with all his being. When we truly hunger and thirst for God, we will be diligent in prayer, study, fasting, and meditation. We will yield ourselves to God and be easily entreated by our brethren, making the changes that transform us into His children. When God fills this hunger, it benefits Him, the church, and us—everybody wins. However, when God calls us, He does not automatically remove the worldly hungers we have acquired. Deep-rooted desires can be difficult to overcome, and unless controlled, wrong hungers will seek satisfaction to the detriment of those who possess them. Jesus Christ poses a critical question in Matthew 16:26, asking what profit there is in gaining the whole world while losing one's soul. He instructs us in Matthew 16:24-25 to deny ourselves, to disown and renounce our own ways, and to subjugate everything to God's standards. We must bear our cross, embracing the situations God has set us in, and with faith in Him, endure the troubles that come. If we insist on preserving our way of life with its wrong hungers, we will lose it eternally. But if we destroy those desires that oppose God, He will save our lives eternally. Satan fills this world with tempting hungers of lust, power, money, and fame, which appear enticing but are traps leading to sin, destruction, and eternal death. God allows us to make decisions and learn from them. The right decision is to yield ourselves under His mighty hand in faith that He will work in us. Once we yield, we can set our mind to overcome, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and God will satisfy us with His wonderful and good work.