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Matthew 6:33 tells us
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.”
Think about that. “ALL THESE THINGS”. It doesn’t matter which language you study: Hebrew, Greek, English, Spanish… “all” means “all”. Jesus tells us in this verse that we don’t need to worry. We don’t need to stress out about food, drink, or clothing because God promises to take care of us. All we need to do is seek Him – or put Him first – in all things He has called us to do. He promises to enable us to accomplish the things He sets us out on!
The key is understanding what it means to “seek Him first”.
Luke 6:46-49 offers a great description of seeking God first:
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
Within this passage, God tells us what a strong foundation is and how we can “seek God first”. He breaks it down to these three things:
- Come to Me. This means to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can’t be born a Christian. Just because you were raised in a Christian home does not make you a Christian. Just because you go to church does not make you a Christian. There has to be a point in your life when you say, “Jesus Christ, I ask You to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior, and I repent of my sins.” If this didn’t happen at some point in your life, then the odds are you are not “seeking Him first”. Surrendering your life completely over to Christ is the first ingredient to seeking God first.
- Hear My sayings. This means abiding in Him. This is in regards to our personal relationship with God. Putting God every single day.
- Does My sayings (obey Him). This means to apply God’s Word – the Bible – in your life.
Lamentations 3:40 tells us:
Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord.
Now, the first question we need to ask in regards to all this is a simple “yes” or “no”: Has there been a time that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you’re not sure. Make sure that you’re sure. This is the first ingredient in seeking God first.
The second question deals with our abiding relationship with God, or our daily prayer and devotion times. Try “grading” yourself by honestly asking yourself: How is your prayer life? Is it growing? Is it close? Do you, as a husband and wife, pray together on a daily basis? Do you pray with your children daily? Would words like “intimacy”, “worship” and “listening” describe your prayer life?
Philippians 4:6 tells us:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.
This is a description of not only a devotional time with God, but learning how to have communion, and praying throughout the day, acknowledging His presence with you. How much time do you spend reading and meditating upon the Word of God? Is it typically just the time you spend at church on Sunday morning? Or is there a time you spend each day when you open the Word and you read it for the sake of really receiving and meditating upon what you’ve heard. Merely keeping your “Daily Bread” devotional beside the toilet and thumbing through it while you take out two birds with one stone is not what God has in mind.
You see, there is no way we can do what He has called us to do, as parents, as spouses, as employees, as friends, as neighbors, as representatives of Jesus Christ without His help. He’s never even expected us to do any of these things without Him. We simply need to honestly show Him that we desire Him by putting and seeking Him first every day.