Monday, November 11, 2013

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

Here is something I've been working on. It's not done yet. I will update it as I go and when it's done.



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.  


No comments:

Post a Comment

Friendly discussion is encouraged. Comments that include cursing, accusations, and name calling will not be tolerated and will be deleted.