Seek First

Mt. 6:32-34

"For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Before anything having to do with food, clothing, and shelter, I am to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What a powerful statement! How often am I concerned about clothing, what I am wearing and how I look not really if I have clothing! I focus on style and acceptability not necessity. But still in this chapter, Jesus doesn't want me to worry about even the necessities. He expands it from the area of clothing to food, not what I eat but do I have enough to eat, and to the area of shelter not where I live but do I have a place to live. He illustrates so well the principle of need versus want. His concern is that my life not be  focused on struggling for necessities but in seeking Him. If I am struggling for wants, then I am a whole level away from what He is even talking about in this passage. I have to wade through my worldly priorities and strip off the 'unnecesaries' and get down to the basics. Then when I am in 'basic land', I have to assess my attitudes. Perhaps this is why my 'seeking' is so hazy because the necessities have bloomed into wants and have obscured my spiritual vision.  

He has promised if I seek Him first and His righteousness, then all that I need will be provided. When my eyes are feasting on Him, His word, and His righteousness then I am consumed with the fruit of that spiritual food not with the works of the world. I am being transformed and freed from the anxiety that this world system produces, anxiety that says more, more, more and is never satisfied. Jesus satisfies because He rights my vision and my priorities. He transforms me from the physical to the spiritual, from the anxious to the peaceful, and from the lost to the seeker.

Father,

Keep my heart seeking only You so that my priorities will be on needs not on things that make for anxiety. Teach me to order my life and to make my vision singular in You.

In Jesus name,

Amen