SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD A Meditation on Matthew 6:33 Santamaria

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

A Meditation on Matthew 6:33

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33

There are words of Christ that seem to wait for us until life has worn us down enough to hear them. Matthew 6:33 is one of those words.

We read it when we are young and imagine it means that if we put God first, life will arrange itself pleasantly around us. But years have a way of stripping such shallow interpretations from the text. We discover that Christ did not promise a life without graves, disappointments, unanswered questions, empty rooms, declining strength, financial anxieties, or nights when sleep will not come. He promised something greater. He told us where to look when everything around us is trying to make us look somewhere else.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

The word first reaches into the heart.

Our problem is often not that we seek evil things. We seek necessary things. Food. Clothing. Security. Health. A home. The welfare of our children. Relief from trouble. Some assurance concerning tomorrow. Christ Himself has just spoken about such things. He knows that we need them. He does not rebuke us for having bodies that need food or families that need provision.

He rebukes the tyranny of anxiety.

The human heart has a terrible habit of turning legitimate concerns into reigning masters. What begins as prudent concern becomes fear. Fear becomes preoccupation. Preoccupation becomes a kind of worship. Soon tomorrow occupies more of our thoughts than God does.

Christ calls us away from that slavery.

“Seek ye first.”

Not because bread does not matter.

Not because the body does not matter.

Not because suffering is imaginary.

But because there is something that matters more.

There is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

The kingdoms of this world rise and fall. Fortunes disappear. Houses decay. Bodies weaken. Governments change. Friends depart. Generations pass. Names once spoken everywhere are forgotten. Men spend their lives building little kingdoms and then discover that death requires them to leave every one of them behind.

But the kingdom of God remains.

Christ therefore teaches us to invest the heart where nothing can finally be lost.

To seek the kingdom of God is not merely to become more religious. It is to acknowledge the reign of God. It is to bow before the King. It is to confess that my life is not ultimately mine, that tomorrow is not mine, that my possessions are not mine, and that the world itself does not belong to chance.

There is a throne above the confusion.

There is a King above the storm.

There is providence where we see only uncertainty.

And there is righteousness where we see so much wrong.

Christ adds, “and his righteousness.”

That phrase destroys human boasting.

He does not tell us to seek a righteousness we manufacture and then present proudly before God. The entire gospel teaches us how desperately we need a righteousness greater than our own. Our righteousness is stained by mixed motives, pride, unbelief, self-interest, and sin. Even our finest moments cannot withstand the searching holiness of God.

Yet the gospel directs the sinner away from himself and toward Christ.

There stands One who fulfilled righteousness.

One who obeyed where we failed.

One who loved the Father perfectly.

One who went obediently to the cross.

One who bore the sins of His people.

One who rose triumphant from the grave.

The anxious soul is therefore not being told merely, “Try harder to become righteous.”

It is being called away from self and toward Christ.

Seek the kingdom.

Seek His righteousness.

Look to the King.

There is something almost astonishing about the tenderness of the surrounding passage. Jesus points His hearers toward birds.

“Behold the fowls of the air.”

They do not plant fields. They do not build barns. Yet the Father feeds them.

Then Christ points toward flowers.

“Consider the lilies of the field.”

They do not weave garments. Yet Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed like one of them.

Then comes the piercing question:

“Are ye not much better than they?”

Christ is not teaching laziness. Birds search for food. Men labor. Farmers sow. Mothers work. Fathers provide. Prudence is not unbelief.

But worry cannot produce tomorrow.

“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”

Anxiety feels productive because the mind is busy. But often it accomplishes nothing except stealing today's strength for tomorrow's imagined trouble.

Christ therefore confronts one of the deepest illusions of fallen man: the illusion that worrying gives us control.

It does not.

We worry because we cannot control tomorrow.

And Christ responds by directing us to the One who already inhabits tomorrow.

“Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

What a sentence.

Before you asked, He knew.

Before the bill arrived, He knew.

Before the diagnosis, He knew.

Before the phone rang, He knew.

Before the person left, He knew.

Before the tears came, He knew.

Before you found yourself standing in a place you never imagined you would stand, He knew.

“Your heavenly Father knoweth.”

Faith does not mean that we know what tomorrow holds.

Faith means that we know who holds tomorrow.

There are seasons when Matthew 6:33 becomes painfully practical.

When money is short, seek first the kingdom.

When health fails, seek first the kingdom.

When someone you love is dying, seek first the kingdom.

When plans collapse, seek first the kingdom.

When reputation is wounded, seek first the kingdom.

When old age takes away abilities once taken for granted, seek first the kingdom.

When you lie awake wondering what will become of those you leave behind, seek first the kingdom.

Not because these griefs are insignificant.

But because none of them is sovereign.

Our troubles are real, but they are not God.

Our fears are loud, but they are not prophets.

Tomorrow is uncertain to us, but it is not uncertain to Him.

Then comes the promise:

“and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Christ does not promise extravagance. He promises fatherly care.

This is not the language of prosperity preaching. Jesus is not saying that devotion to God guarantees wealth, comfort, or immunity from suffering. The apostles sought the kingdom first, and some of them died poor, persecuted, imprisoned, and martyred.

Yet none of them was abandoned.

There is a difference between possessing everything we desire and possessing everything our Father determines that we truly need.

We often ask God for an easier road.

He sometimes gives sufficient grace instead.

We ask that the burden disappear.

He sometimes gives shoulders strengthened to carry it.

We ask to understand.

He sometimes asks us to trust.

We ask for tomorrow's provision today.

He gives today's bread today.

And then He asks us to meet Him again tomorrow.

Perhaps this is why the verse immediately following Matthew 6:33 says:

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”

There is enough grace for today.

Tomorrow has not yet been given to you.

Do not live there.

God has placed you here.

This hour.

This duty.

This prayer.

This sorrow.

This opportunity to love.

This moment to believe.

Seek Him here.

One day there will be no tomorrow to worry about.

The believer will have worried his final worry, shed his final tear, attended his final funeral, felt his final pain, and fought his final temptation.

Then the kingdom we sought by faith will be seen.

The King will no longer seem distant.

Righteousness will no longer be contested by sin.

Providence will no longer appear mysterious.

Every dark thread will be seen inside the finished tapestry of God's wisdom.

And perhaps then we will understand how many nights we tormented ourselves over things that were already safely in our Father's hands.

Until that day, Christ gives us a simple order for the heart:

Not tomorrow first.

Not money first.

Not reputation first.

Not comfort first.

Not fear first.

Not even ourselves first.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”

And then leave the rest with the Father.

For the hands that hold the kingdom are the same hands that hold you.