Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33 NLT)
Read it again.
What you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what he wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need. (Matthew 6:33 ERV)
WHAT STICKS OUT?
Action word:Seek
Return on investment:everything you need
WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE?
>>> MINER <<<
The verb "seek" is a action of moving forward as opposed to just wanting for God. The first thought I had was of a boy digging through a toy box to find his favorite toy, but I didn't want this message to seem childish. So I aged the concept to a man digging for treasure like the parable in Matthew 13:44.
>>> LAYERS OF EARTH <<<
Putting God first is a process similar to digging through the layers of the earth to get to the ultimate treasure. The goal is to dig out or move past the things that are taking your focus away from God. You start at the outermost layer and gradually work your way down.
The top layer is usually littered with things that are clearly identified in the bible as bad, such as addictions to drugs and alcohol or sexual immorality or violence or negative attitudes. But just because this layer may contain some obvious obstacles, it doesn't make it easy to get rid of them. God must help the process.
The second layer contains things you want that are taking your attention from God. They aren't bad, but they aren't best. These obstacles normally fill up your free time and weekends. You can identify these things by a question like, "where am I finding purpose or joy or rest apart from God?"
Most people think this verse is talking about the distractions at this second layer, but it goes much deeper. Right before this verse (Matthew 6:19-34), Jesus specifically tells us not to concern ourselves with basic needs such as food or water or clothes. This bottom layer contains things you need to survive. Here you learn that life itself is less important than God's work and you release your control on life to God.
Which layer are you digging through now?
>>> GOLD <<<
Now here's the twist of this verse. You just gave up everything for God, but somehow He promises to give it back. How does that work? I prayed for the Holy Spirit to explain it to me. We spent some time working it out together and here is what He said: Anything you want in this life is actually a gift from God (James 1:17) designed to point you back to our Creator. At the core of each gift there is a reflection of our Father (like love or joy or peace) to teach us about Him and how to have a relationship with Him. The problem is that we begin to worship and rely on the gifts instead of the Giver. The gifts of this world are like finding gold. You can be satisfied by the chunk of gold that you found, but if you look closer, you'll see a vein of gold leading to the source. Don't settle for one piece when there is so much more. Don't settle for a reflection of our Creator when you can meet Him face to face through Jesus Christ.
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