Seek First His Kingdom
We know we need to make God a priority in our lives. Regarding Father God, Jesus says we are to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Then other things will fall into place (Matthew 6:33).
In the Old Testament, Moses quotes God telling the people—and us—that we’re to have no other Gods before him (Exodus 20:3). That is, nothing should come between us and God.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus says it’s to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37-38). We need to put God first in our lives.
Our Lord needs to be our priority. Though we know this in our hearts—and desire to accomplish this—we often struggle to put it into practice.
Our lives overflow with distractions and pursuits that compete for our attention. These interfere with the need to seek first his kingdom.
Here are some common distractions that keep us from living out our faith.
Money
We need money to live. It’s a reality in the world today for most everyone. This means we need to work to earn a living (which we’ll cover next).
Along with money often comes debt. We want things we can’t afford so we purchased them on credit. Then we become a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).
If we own a house, we likely have a mortgage. Though this is often necessary, the bigger question becomes is this a home we can afford or one that we can’t afford? The size of our house and the corresponding size of our mortgage reveals our priorities.
Work
As we already mentioned, we work to earn a living and pay for our basic needs: food, shelter, and clothes. Yet we also go beyond that, purchasing what we want.
We strive to work more and to earn more so we can then spend more. How much is enough? In truth, we are never satisfied, always craving more (Ecclesiastes 6:7).
For many, work implies a career. We seek to advance our career—to earn promotions or climb the corporate ladder—all so that we can make more money.
Yet money can become our God (Matthew 6:24). In the end, we seek more money and forget to seek first his kingdom.
The proper perspective towards money is to have enough to supply what we need. When it comes to purchasing what we want, we might be better off to trust God with that and not our paycheck.
Schedule
A third area that gets in the way of the goal to seek first his kingdom is our schedule. Today most of us live busy lives. Too busy.
We’re overcommitted. We pack as much as we can into each day. This leaves little time—if any—for God. It even leaves no time for us to rest (Genesis 2:2-3).
This doesn’t mean we should live idle lives (Ecclesiastes 10:18 and 11:6). Instead, we should live our lives with intention, to make every moment count.
To guide us in properly planning our day, we should seek first his kingdom. Then fit in everything else around it.
Family
Our families are important. God created us with the command to be fruitful and multiply.
Therefore, we get married and have children. We rightfully want to make them our priority. We rightly desire to elevate them over money, work, and schedule.
Yet we would be wrong to elevate family over God. To be his disciple, we must put him first and family second.
Though Jesus uses hyperbole to make his point, he says that to truly be his disciple we must hate our family (Luke 14:26). In reality, we must love our family. But we must love God more.
Social Media
You may be surprised to see social media as the fifth item on our list of things that gets in the way of our goal to seek first his kingdom.
Yet go to any gathering, and you’re likely to see many people with their phones out, scrolling through their various feeds.
This is seemingly more important than interacting with their families, engaging with community, or even seeking God.
Related to this is various forms of entertainment and leisure activities. Though none of these are bad pursuits, it’s wrong when they get in the way of us and God.
Seek First His Kingdom
As we move through life, may we make God our priority and seek first his kingdom. His kingdom is more important than money, work, schedule, family, and social media.
We must first seek his kingdom and his righteousness. Then we’ll receive all other things as well (Matthew 6:33).
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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