Seeking First His Kingdom And His Righteousness

But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these will be added to you.  Matthew 6:33

This verse came to me recently in a conversation with Madison, a young women who was beset by many problems. I asked her if she had a good church to attend and she responded that she had gone to church a few times but then she started giving me a list of reasons why it was difficult for her to go.

"Maybe I can just watch church on TV" she said. My response was; "That would be better than nothing but it's not the same".

I then quoted her the verse, well actually I sung her the first verse from the song listed below. This was from the first song book we used at the early Charismatic prayer meetings that met in the gym at St. Joe's and we included it in the song book we compiled and used for many years at our family prayer meetings. When the song is sung in a round the effect, even with our rather bad musical ability, was always quite beautiful.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God;
And His righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you.
Hallelu, Hallelujah!

Ask and it shall be given unto you;
Seek and ye shall find.
Knock and the door shall be open unto you.
Hallelu, Hallelujah!

After singing the song verse (not in a round) I quoted the bible verse and Madison repeated it slowly after me. I told her that the verse meant that if she would seek God's will and put Him first in every thing in her life, finances, money problems, work, and even situations with boyfriends, if she did that God always makes everything work out better than what she could imagine.

"And if your desire is to go to church and you ask God to provide a way He will always open a door for things like that to happen".

Madison then began to tell me a couple of thoughts she had about how she might be able to find a way to get to church. At that point I had to stop her.

"The point Madison is not going to church. Yes that is good and vital but the main point is that we need to seek God's will for every part of our life and we need to put Him first in every part of our life. Going to church should be a result of our desire to do that."

Hopefully Madison will take that first step and find a church that teaches from the bible, proclaims the good news about salvation and shows her how to have freedom in Jesus. I think if offered plainly she will jump at the chance.

Earlier in the 6th chapter of Matthew, verse 11, when Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray He includes the same advice found later in verse 33.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

I am amazed by the beauty and the simplicity in both of Jesus statements as recorded by Matthew. Yes I know we could do a word and subject study here about the Jewish understanding of what God's kingdom is and what righteousness means but right now I want to speak simply and direct.

Jesus is Lord of all, both in heaven and on earth. He is the Creator and loves all that He made.

And yet because of sin and rebellion there exists two kingdoms that struggle against each other - The kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. One is an everlasting kingdom. One is subject to decay and death and will pass away.

You have no choice but to be a servant, either in the kingdom of God or in the kingdom of the world. That's just the way it works. Ignorance is no excuse.

God's kingdom and His righteousness are not of this earthly kingdom, but by seeking (actively desiring) those things first, God will provide for us everything we need, both in this earthly kingdom as well as in the heavenly kingdom.

Consider the lilies.