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His Kingdom

             But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

Not surprisingly, Dallas Willard refers to this verse in Renovation of the Heart. His description of the kingdom is the range of God’s effective will. This might rankle some. God is omnipresent and omnipotent. Everywhere is within the range of His effective will. Technically, that’s true, but it is not necessarily true in the way we think.

For example, suppose that God told you it was His will that you stay in the room you’re in. Within the range of His will, you could paint the walls, jump around. He could also have told you that you’re to sit on the floor and count to ten billion. Within that range of effective will, you would be far more restricted in what you were permitted to do. The whole point of the kingdom as the range of God’s effective will is that God’s effective will may be to allow you a wide range of acceptable alternatives.  

So, while everything is ultimately within the range of His effective will, He does permit us – part of the time and to some extent at least – to be effectively outside that range. This means that seeking the kingdom can be much nearer to where we are, and much farther, depending on our attitude and cooperation.

Seeking His kingdom isn’t about some future place with puffy white clouds, streets of gold, and harps. It does have to do with our preferring His kingdom to ours. Seeking His righteousness requires that we come to prefer His ideas of right and wrong to our own – or at the very least that we recognize His as better. The whole point of both is that we choose to work with God, according to His principles as the prerequisite for getting food, water, and clothing, or any other thing we consider important. But if we truly seek His kingdom and His righteousness, then those two things will be more important than food, water, and clothing. That isn’t to say that we won’t need those things, but if we had a real idea of what His kingdom and His righteousness entailed, those other things would be small potatoes.

          I’m nowhere near that. I still have very clear preferences to have food, drink, and clothing as the prerequisite for seeking the kingdom. It seems to me to be terribly difficult to seek His kingdom without them. But the passage goes on to point out that God knows we need these things. It’s a question (I think) or priorities.

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