Seek Ye First

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 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.” (Matthew 6:26-33)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

Time to go back to definitions. What is meant by the kingdom of God? Some would answer “Heaven.” There are places in Scripture where it tells us that the heavens and the earth are all part of God’s kingdom. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so it would seem reasonable to say that we are part of the kingdom, but we’re told to seek it. 

The prayer the Lord taught His disciples gives another picture of the kingdom of God. It is where God’s will is done as it is done in heaven. I’ve been praying through that prayer in the past couple months. Sometimes, I’ve changed the wording a little: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in my head, my heart, my bowels, my body, my soul, my hands, my words, my deeds and my relations as it is in heaven.” When that’s too long, I shorten it to “…Thy will be done in every aspect of my life.”

A couple days ago, I found myself thinking about how God’s will is done in heaven. The visions of heaven we are shown are almost all visions of joy. God’s will isn’t done because it has to be. His will isn’t done out of compulsion. Heaven is not depicted to us as a concentration camp and a sweat shop. His will is done because it is the will and the delight of the ones doing it. His will is done naturally, because they are the kind of people who do the sort of things that are in His will. It’s not “Well, God said,” but “why would we do otherwise?”

I tell myself I want to do God’s will. He’s wise. His ways are above my ways, yada, yada, yada, but how often do I drag through it like it’s killing me? How often do I fret over the results that either aren’t what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted, or why I wanted?

Seek  ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all the rest will fall into place – according to His will and wisdom, in His time. We must bow the knee and remember that God is good.