Matthew 6:33
Matthew 6:33 – “But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you.”
Seek first the kingdom of God. Seek FIRST the kingdom of God. But
only only that, seek the righteousness of God also. Then God will provide what
you need. God wants to provide for you. Eternally More important than that,
however, is that God wants a relationship with you. But that can’t happen if we
are not focused on Him. That’s why He tells us to seek Him first.
But what does it mean to seek God? In
the original Greek, the word for seek
means to seek in order to find; to seek after, aim at, strive after. More
interestingly, it also means "to crave, demand something of someone."
This word is also an imperative, meaning it’s a command. It isn’t one of those
things where you say, “Do you think you could, maybe, possibly, with cherries
on top, seek God?”
Jesus is commanding us to seek God. And
as already stated, this is not a normal seeking. Seek God as though He is your
only chance at life, because He really is your only chance at life. Seek God
like you would when you rip the house apart looking for your missing wallet.
But don’t stop there. Crave God. Crave His presence. Crave God’s wisdom. Crave
His love. Crave time with Him first thing in the morning. He wants to be found
of you. He wants to spend that time with you. All you need to do is take that
first step.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And ye shall seek
me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Have you fallen away from God? Seek Him and
live. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their
land.”
Not only will God meet you where you
are; not only will He forgive your sins; not only will He embrace you with open
arms; but God will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over
thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
And to me that is awesome. The God of all the universe sings over me. Me, of
all people.
Matthew 6:33 – “But seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Seek - to seek in order to find; to seek after, aim at, strive after; TO CRAVE;
kingdom - royal power, kingship, dominion, rule; So could one say, "Crave
first the royal power of God?" Crave God. Crave His power for your life.
Crave His transforming power. Crave His blessings. Crave His love. Crave God.
To be the subject of a kingdom, means you have, at least to some degree, a relationship with the king of that land. He is the king, you are the citizen. He is the ruler, you are the servant. So one could also say it this way: “Seek first a relationship with God, and His righteousness.” God wants a relationship with each and every one of us. He wants us to be in His Kingdom. But that cannot happen if we are not seeking God and seeking to have a relationship with Him. You don’t get to know someone if you do not have a relationship with them. You cannot be close to someone, even someone thousands of miles away, if you do not have a relationship with them.
But keep in mind that God is not a
vending machine. He can and does provide for us. He can and does grant us some
of our hearts desires. But God wants us to crave HIM. We need to
crave God. We need to crave His presence. We need to crave Him so much that we
will stop at nothing to have that blessed and sacred time with Him. There is so much more to being a Christian
than what God can do for us. (Imitation is the highest form of flattery). So
to, the ultimate form of worship is to be like God.
But how do you seek God when things are
going wrong? How do you seek Him when you are looking for a job, but can’t find
one? How do you seek God when you just don’t want to?
Job was a person who did just that. Job
13:15 says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” It’s safe to say that
Job was going through a very difficult time. If anyone would’ve been expected
to complain about his circumstances and to avoid God, it would be Job. But he
did the opposite. He still praised God. He still sought God. He refused to give
up that relationship with God.
Another great example is also the
prophet Daniel. Evil men were after him trying to get him out of the way. His
friends were thrown in a furnace. Daniel himself was thrown in a den of hungry
lions. But these men still kept seeking God, and His righteousness. And as a
result, not only were they saved out of their dire predicaments, but God used
them to be a powerful witness to many people.
There will be times where trials will
come our way to test us. Will we seek God during these hard times? If we do, we
will come out of these trials stronger in our faith in God. If we do not, then
we cannot expect to become closer to God. It’s vital to praise God and seek Him
in these hard times. Often it is in these hard times where we can receive some
of the greatest blessings from God, if we will just trust Him, praise Him, and
seek Him.
To add a personal story here, being
unemployed is not easy. It’s difficult when you know you won’t have enough
money from just one paycheck to pay all of the bills. It’s especially difficult
when your child is in a private school that costs half of what you pay in rent
for your home. But God is faithful. It is during this time that I need to seek
God, especially when I feel like I don’t want to. But again, it is during times
like these that I can receive some of the greatest blessings, if I just make
the choice to seek God, instead of wallowing in self-pity. Some days it’s
easier and others it’s not so easy. The devil will not let it be easy. But we
must persevere. God will give us the strength that we need if we seek Him
first. By looking at God and seeking Him first, everything else will be less difficult
to deal with. There is nothing that God and you can’t handle. Just seek Him
first and put Him first.
Seeking God in every circumstance is
vital. We cannot have a relationship with Him if we do not. It’s the same in
marriage. The marriage will not work if you do not tackle problems together. If
one makes a mistake, the marriage will come out stronger if the other is
forgiving and loving. Seeking God includes being reconciled to Him.
Romans 5:10 says, “For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” We seek after God because He made
the first move, and sought after us. He is reconciling us to Himself “by the
death of his Son” and as a result, “being reconciled, we shall be saved by his
life.”
Talk to Him. Let Him talk to you through
His word. Tell Him all of your joys, sorrows, troubles, everything. Talk to Him
as you would your best friend. To quote John Piper, get alone with God every
morning. Preach His word into your heart. Preach his word into your heart until
you sing with confidence that you are new and that you are loved. God’s word is
His chosen means of communicating with us. Everything we need to know about
life is contained in that Holy Book. Every lesson we need to learn, a solution
for every problem that we face, is contained in the Bible. Do you think that
God would give us His Holy Word without including in it everything we need to
know? God is too loving to withhold any good thing from us.
Romans 8:32 says, “He that spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?” And again God’s word says, in James 1:17, “Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Every piece of knowledge and wisdom
necessary for life, is found in the Bible. But we must mine it out.
Ellen White says this: “There is not
always perfect order or apparent unity in the Scriptures.... The truths of the Bible are as pearls
hidden. They must be searched, dug out by painstaking effort. Those who
take only a surface view of the Scriptures will, with their superficial
knowledge, which they think is very deep, talk of the contradictions of the
Bible, and question the authority of the Scriptures. But those whose hearts are in harmony with truth and duty will search
the Scriptures with a heart prepared to receive divine impressions. The
illuminated soul sees a spiritual unity, one grand golden thread running
through the whole, but it requires patience, thought, and prayer to trace out
the precious golden thread.” The Faith I Live By, p. 11
Talking with God is vital. We need that
communication with Him. “Opening the Heart to a Friend—Prayer is the opening of
the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make
known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does
not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him. {Pr 8.4} When Jesus was upon
the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present
their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the
assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also
to us.—(Steps to Christ, 93.) {Pr 8.5}”
Prayer and study of the Bible is how we
can get to know God. It is how we seek God. It is how that relationship between
God and us is formed. It’s like having a pen pal. You write to someone whom
you’ve never met in person, but through letters, you get to know them. The
Bible is God’s letter to us. It is God’s love letter to us. If we want
to know how God feels about us, read the Bible. If we want to know what our
duty to God is and to our fellow man, read the Bible. It’s all there,
everything we need to know.
The service of God is to be our highest
interest. When Jesus was speaking the words of Matthew 6:33 to the crowd on the
mountain, many were wondering how following Him would help their worldly
persuits. But that view is all wrong. We are to make Jesus and a relationship
with Him our highest goal. When we do this, the promise is that God will
provide for our every need.
Is your bank account low? Or under? Seek
God. Are your kids addicted to drugs? Seek God. Are you addicted to drugs?
Alcohol? Pornography? Seek God. No matter what the problem is, seeking God is,
quite literally, the answer to all of life’s problems and successes. Trust me,
I know how hard it is to seek God in the difficult times. When hard times come,
the last thing I want to do most times is to seek God. But this is the only way
the problem will be solved.
When I seek God, when I make knowing God
my highest priority, then God does the rest. He will provide a job for me that
He wants me to have. He will provide the money we need to pay the bills. God
will be there and provide as long as I seek Him.
