Wednesday, February 1, 2023
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33
Seek First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness…
We are one month into 2023. A new year is typically marked by resetting goals, cleaning out, purging, and examining our lives from the inside out to see what needs to be improved. What new goals do we need to set and what new priorities do we need to have for the coming year.
One priority that always needs to be number one for us as Christians is to put God first, at the top of the list. Seeking God, and His righteousness, should be the first rule of our life. It should be the foundation that everything else is built upon and the priority at the top of the list that infiltrates all other priorities. When we put Him first, it flows into everything else in our lives.
We should never have to choose between honoring God and loving our family, being a good employee or good friend. We seek His kingdom first and honor God by loving our families, being good employees, and good friends. We honor Him in all we do, we don’t separate Him from the other areas of our lives, not if we want to honor Him in those areas. If we have areas we don’t want to invite Him into, they are probably areas that do not need to be a part of our lives.
…and all these things will be added to you
Jesus is also reminding us that we do not need to spend our lives worrying about physical needs. We can trust God when we seek God, His kingdom and righteousness, making it the number one priority of our lives. We replace worry about the physical needs in our lives with focus on God and His kingdom and righteousness. Nothing is more important than this in our lives.
Jesus gives us more that we could ever imagine, even more than just meeting our physical needs. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21. He gives blessings we could never imagine and abundant life when we seek Him above all.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14:12
We always get into trouble when we try to manage our own lives or fix our own problems. When we get distracted or put something else on the throne of our life other than Him, we are putting a barrier up between Him and us. Anything that is not adding to our spiritual growth is hindering it and affecting our relationship with God and His purpose and goodness for our life.
What areas of your life are you not allowing God into? Is there a habit or passion that you need to give up because it is keeping Him from being number one in your life? He needs to be first because when we do that, we ensure that there will be a place for Him – the first place.
LC
