What Does It Mean To Seek First The Kingdom Of God?

Matthew 6:33 says “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all else will be given to you.”

God began speaking some truth to me that I did not want to hear. What exactly is it that? Simply this: I was beginning to seek his kingdom out of a selfish motive, out of a personal desire to get what I wanted. Perhaps I should be more clear….

 

It was becoming a waiting game for me. I found myself desiring something so badly that I began to seek God’s kingdom in hopes that if I did, he might give me a green signal, the easy answer I wanted to hear, the answer that would satisfy my worldly desire. I was completely unaware that I was seeking his kingdom out of a selfish motive because I was so caught up in what I WANTED! It became a waiting game, where I was thinking to myself that I was seeking his kingdom out of my love for him and desire to be closer to him, when in reality at the back of my heart and mind, I was hoping that if I did this then he would give me what I wanted. Wow….selfish right? Exactly. When God revealed this truth to me, I was completely stopped in my tracks. I felt as if my heart had literally dropped out of my chest. I was so disappointed in myself and completely embarrassed. How prideful and selfish could I be?!?!

 

Since this revelation, I have experienced God’s grace pouring over me like water. He has been working to humble me from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep. How does God not get tired working as hard as he does to do this?!?! But besides the undeserving grace and humility I have received, I have also been learning something I am so thankful to be learning. Something I had never thought about before God revealed this part of my life to me, but nonetheless, the growth that I have experienced from it is truly a blessing. I am not quite sure if I began to ask God this question or if he began asking me. I have a feeling that it was God who began asking me this question and has been showing me the answer to it ever since. What does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God?

 

I think right now I want to leave this question with you to think about before I go on. I know it has taken a lot of meditation, solitude, peace, quiet, and rest, all in God and His word to truly make me stop and listen to what he is saying. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of our every day lives, that we sometimes forget to stop and listen. God is speaking to us everyday, but how often do we forget to listen? I am willing to be more often than not. What I want is for my desire, my thirst to be for Christ alone! I want to know him more, love him more, serve him more. But in this fallen world we live in, I find myself getting consumed by other desires that come form the world. Desires of the flesh, success in school, material, building up my name and being known, and the list goes ON AND ON!!!! In the midst of all these other desires that will never fulfill me, that will never satisfy me, that will leave me empty, why is it that I constantly return to them? If I want my desire and thirst to be for Christ alone and above anything else, how do I keep this the motive and purpose of my live when all these other worldly distractions and desires love to show themselves to me? What does it truly mean to seek first the kingdom of God rather than the worldly desires of this world? 

 

So I leave you with this for now and I hope you will take time to stop and be still and listen to God. It is my prayer that you will pray for him to reveal the truth to this question to you, and rely on the power of prayer to know that it is powerful because God is powerful. Take time to meditate on God and his word and allow him to teach things to you and reveal his truth to you.