Seek Ye First…
I am sure many of you can finish that verse off the top of your head, but just in case not, here it is:
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
That was the banner verse for my devotional this morning out of My Utmost for His Highest. This verse always brings me to my knees. It seems this is the biggest challenge in my Christian life. Chambers said this about the verse:
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “. . . seek first the kingdom of God . . . .” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But Imust live; I must make a certain amount of money; Imust be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
What an extremely difficult command. Most of us would not know what to think about half the time if we couldn’t worry about our day to day lives. Still that is what Christ requires of his disciples.
The more I have pondered, studied, and digested this passage I have come to realize that the only way to fulfill this teaching of Jesus is to become 100% satisfied in Him alone. The reason we worry and fret over the things of this world, is because we still believe they will bring us peace, joy, hope, happiness, success, love, fulfillment, purpose, etc… We continue to pursue them and toil for them because we think that ultimately they will satisfy us.
They won’t.
Only He can do that.
So once we come to a full realization of this truth we will no longer need to worry about worldly concerns because we will be completely and wholly satisfied in Christ our Lord. As with all His commands this one is fulfilled only within the saving power and grace of our Savior. We alone can never reach this point. He must work in us to call us into full surrender to Himself.
–Wholly Surrender!