Empty Fullness vs. Satisfaction

"The righteous eat to their hearts' content,
but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry." (Prov. 13:25)

It's hard to be righteous and resist temptation. It always seems like there's some great satisfaction waiting for us on the other side of sin, but when I think about how I feel when I sin, I wouldn't call it satisfaction at all. It's comparable to eating bad cafeteria food. The food may look delicious at first sight, and it may even taste good going down if you're really hungry. But once you've finished eating it, even though you're full, you're not satisfied. It's sort of an empty fullness, a fullness that leaves you wanting. Then suppose right after you finish, some truly good food was set in front of you. You would want to eat it because you're not satisfied with what you already ate, but you can't because you're full. You can't eat the good food because you're too full of the bad food.

On the other hand, righteousness is comparable to the truly good food. Once you eat it, you're not only full but also satisfied. Not only do you not need any more food, you don't want it either. You can't want what you already have.

To summarize, being full on sin makes it very difficult to hunger for righteousness, and being full on righteousness makes it very difficult to hunger for sin.