“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matt 6: 33 (NIV)
There was something heavy on my heart and I was praying to God on the matter. I was in my local snooker club with my son, but my attention was elsewhere. I was anxious that God would intervene in my situation. Waiting for my son to play the ball, the Holy Spirit put the verse “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you” into my mind. I started to repeat the verse in my head, then I grasped the words; “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. This was the key that would open the door: It was God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. Looking at the verse we see that it is a promise from God. If we seek His Kingdom and if seek His righteousness, then God has promised that He will react to our pursuit of Him. Can we understand that God has promised to act if we act? Can we grasp that the creator God will intervene in our lives if we start to follow the words of the Bible?
So now let’s see what this verse means.
First of all, let’s see the verse in context, and not just apply this verse by itself as we don’t want to take the verse and apply it out of context, and apply the verse wrongly. So, the verse in context is as follows:
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6: 31- 34, NIV)
The context of the verse is that we are concerned about what we eat or what we wear. 2000 years ago, and today our concern is for the very basics of our life. In February 2023, some parts of the world were struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, with inflation at 10.4% in the UK. It ultimately reached 11.1% before its downward trajectory to where we are today at 2.3%. Here in the UK, people were scared to put the heating on. Some were choosing between heating and power or food. Some parents were feeding their children and letting themselves go hungry. We need these basics just as everyone else needs them. But the good news is in the last verse, where we see that God says to us “Don’t worry”. We should not worry because God will provide these basic items that will sustain us. This is very good news. God is on our side and He will provide the basics that we need to live.
God knows what we need, and He has said to us that He will provide these basics. But the question is this; what is our part in the deal? Remember that God has said He will act IF we act. He will move to us IF we move to Him. The promise of God is dependent on our actions. So, let’s now see what we are to do.
Seek first
The first thing we need to note is that we are to seek. The Greek word that we transliterate into the word seek is “zeteo”. This means obviously to seek but also means meditating, to enquire, to strive, and to crave. Therefore, we are to meditate and seek God. We are to pore over the Word of God, meditate on the Word, and see if God speaks to us directly through the Word.
We are to crave God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. Imagine a man who hasn’t eaten anything for a week, and then you open the kitchen door for him and let him see all the succulent food on the kitchen worktop. Do you think he would go in and just pick at the food? No, he would go in and feed himself until his hunger pangs had subsided. He wouldn’t bother with the niceties of life; all he wants is the food that he craves. And this is what we are to be like with the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are to gorge on it. Seek it out like a man who is hungry for the Word of God and gorge on it. So, seeking isn’t some causal seeking, some afterthought. It’s an intentional dedicated lifestyle of putting His Kingdom and His righteousness first in our lives.
And that’s exactly what God wants. The verse says to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness. That is why John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both declared that we are to repent for the Kingdom of God is nearby. We are to repent; to say sorry and show that we mean it by changing our lifestyle to one of seeking God’s Kingdom and His righteousness.
2000 years ago, the people didn’t look for the Kingdom and His righteousness, apart from a few, and the same applies today. I finish work at 5 pm and then I help prepare dinner. By 8 pm we are finished and the dishes have been washed. I watch some TV before I take the dog out at 10.30 pm then off to bed. 3 hours of relaxation and a casual stroll around the neighbourhood. However, there was never a thought of reading the Bible or seeking His face in prayer. Not one thought of seeking God’s Kingdom or His righteousness. Oh, how much do I need to change my life!
The kingdom of God
We are to seek, to crave for, and to meditate over the Kingdom of God, but what exactly is the Kingdom of God?
I live in the United Kingdom, where King Charles reigns as monarch. So broadly speaking the Kingdom of God is a kingdom where God reigns. Jesus was quite clear that the kingdom of God was not an earthly kingdom, and that was the reason that Pontius Pilate found no reason to find Jesus guilty when Jesus was put on trial. Jesus wasn’t trying to usurp or destroy the Roman Empire. Jesus also said that we must be born again, a spiritual rebirth. We are to be born again into a spiritual kingdom. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom.
I am a citizen of the UK and I am a subject to the Monarch, so in the Kingdom of God I am a subject of the spiritual Monarch who is God. God is my King. The question is: am I a good subject in the Kingdom of God or a bad subject in the Kingdom? The answer to that question is this: like everyone in the Kingdom of God, I am flawed, and as Paul put it brilliantly:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Rom 7: 15, NIV) and
“…I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Rom 7: 18 and 19, NIV)
So, the answer is that I want to be a good citizen of the Kingdom of God, but I find myself continuously disobeying God. However, the glorious end of this depressing matter is that God knows my heart and I desire to follow Him. I’m still a member of the Kingdom of God because of God’s grace to me. Here again, Paul puts it well;
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph 2: 8&9, NIV)
Paul shows us that we are members of the Kingdom of God because of God’s grace, His undeserved favour to us. Even though we continually go against God we are still members of the Kingdom of God.
Lastly, let’s turn our attention to His righteousness. Unfortunately, this is where the rubber hits the road. We are now meant to be seeking His righteousness. We are meant to be Christ-like. My wife is my worst critic, and she thinks I am bad at this. Of course, she sees all my flaws. As Isaiah said a long time ago:
“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isa 1: 18, NIV)
So, although I am sinful, God the King sees me as sinless. I am justified because Jesus went to the cross and died for me. The blood spilt at the cross washed my sin away and I am now seen as white as snow. This is a great starting point, but we need to move forward from this. We are to seek His righteousness. We need to seek God so that we become Christ-like. This is called sanctification. Paul said that:
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable” (NIV, 1 Thess 4: 3, NIV)
Paul said that we should learn to control our bodies, and this is the key. As we live as Christians, Paul is saying that we should become more Christ-like. Therefore, our lives should change over time. Before we turned to Christ, we were completely focused on ourselves, but as we grow in Christ, we should be becoming less and less selfish. Pressing this further, Paul said that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. We can only really control our bodies if we allow the Holy Spirit to control our minds. Let me repeat that. We can only really control our bodies if we allow the Holy Spirit to control our minds. We are meant to live as Christians in the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is a dramatic statement. Jesus Christ, at the beginning of His ministry, was baptised by the Holy Spirit, and when we became Christians, we also were baptised by the Holy Spirit. Of course, the difference between Jesus Christ and ourselves is stark, but our aim in life is that as each day passes, we become more and more like Christ. As Paul said:
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18, NIV)
Our lives are meant to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It's our mind that tells us what to do, and if our mind is transformed then our actions and our lives are transformed. This is the righteousness that we are meant to crave and seek.
So, let’s begin to seek God, meditate on the Word of God, and crave the Word as a baby craves their mother’s milk. Let’s seek God’s righteousness, let the Word of God transform our minds, and change our actions so that we become more and more like Christ.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information on worldwide inflation please see below a table with some countries and their inflation rate. I have shown the UK and the USA first as a reference. This is for April 2024
UK 2.5
USA 2.9
Argentina 249.8
Egypt 32.5
Iran 37.5
Sierra Leone 39.1
South Sudan 54.8
Sudan 145.5
Venezuela 100
Turkey 59.5
Zimbabwe 561
Please pray for these countries where inflation is so high. Pray that the leaders of these countries can begin to bring inflation down. Pray for the church in these countries that they may provide help to those in need. Please pray, if you have the expertise, that you can reach out and provide the assistance required.
Please Consider
If you think this post is worthwhile, please
Hit the like button, the restack button, and
Recommend my Substack so that others may read the post.
Next, if you are a follower but not a subscriber then please note the following:
There is a difference between being a follower and a subscriber. The difference is cut and pasted below:
1. Follower: They can see your notes and some of your reading activities like post likes. Followers DO NOT receive your posts in their email inbox, so their interaction is limited to what they see on the platform itself.
2. Free Subscriber: They subscribe to your Substack and receive your free posts via email and/or the Substack app. This means they get more direct and regular updates from you, including any free content you publish.
So, without any commitment from yourself, please consider becoming a subscriber, so that you will automatically receive my emails and be able to read all my posts.
Thank you and God bless you today
Robert
So I sit here in my car at 3:20 in the morning of the parking lot for the Construction plant then I am working at as a 63-year-old man just disgusted what my fellow human being have done on this planet under the guidance of Satan. And I read your well thought of, heartfelt, loving of all life here on this planet, and it gives me a spark of Hope. Your words affirmed some of my own fears or maybe questions about our existence and possibly our purpose. Truly believe there’s a purpose and reason for us on this planet. I feel we all go through our own personal parable of talents, I think our actions upon those may be the determinant whether or not we live life with our holy father. I’m 63 now and I think I just discovered my talent a year ago, so it took me six decades, and I truly sought it. Period and I looked to others and I don’t wanna be judgmental, but I see so many others not seeking what God is giving them, but just focusing on earthly pleasures and this has me convinced that we are near the end. And I’m not a prophecy expert, so maybe this is just the beginning. I don’t know. But I am truly in all hell you’re writing has actually hit a nerd with me. As I was her thoroughly disgusted upon hearing about the doctors at Texas children’s Hospital this past weekend in Houston, possibly the facility for helping children in the world who are on purpose giving puberty blockers to 1011 and 12-year-olds after the state government told them not to. So they made the statement to their administrators to no longer do that not what’s best for the kids, but for fear of Lawsuit. What the hell? And yet they said this is a smoke screen because the young doctor caught them doing it again to many many children 10 1112 and 13 year-old were being altering surgeries quietly. And this servant of God, young doctor whistle blew on them and now he’s twice been arrested in his home and will be brought up on trial this week. What bizarro world is that other than the fact that Satan has his body hand control on this earth which I understand it is his playground. So thank you again for your writing. I’m doing voice to text and I’m not going to check over it so if I talk gibberish, just think I’m my grandmother and speaking in Ukrainian. May God be with you? Thank you so much for your exquisite writing and you thought candy.
Coachbear
The urban farmboy
Thank you for these wonderful reminders brother Robert. We are to always walk by faith and not by sight, seeing the unseen as seen. Our faith has to be tested and proven and God allowing us to be put through trials. Count it all joy, my brothers,when you meet trials of various kinds,for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Janes 1:2-4
Do we draw ever closer in our dependency upon and to our Heavenly father or upon ourselves. Our father in Heaven promises to show himself faithful to those whom trust in Him.
The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. What is he looking for? To show himself mighty on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
God is faithful to those who honour Him with their lives and pursue Him first and His kingdom His will interests and purposes keeping His commands, precepts, statues and walking in the way of salvation of Jesus Christ and holy spirit led. 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/gods_promises