Priority 1

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you" - Matthew 6:33

During lunch today I heard a sermon that was wrapped around this verse. It was AWESOME! So awesome that I'm considering buying it on CD - which I know I do way too often. But anyway - I'd like to share some of what I learned, and some of my own thoughts too:

1st - What is the Kingdom of God? My Bible defines it as "wherever God is reigning and the people experiencing God's reign".
2nd - What does it mean to seek the "Kingdom of God"? How do we seek it?
The pastor I heard over lunch gave 3 ways we are to seek the Kingdom of God - and I thought these were really good:
We should seek to: EXPERIENCE, EXPRESS & EXPAND the Kingdom of God.
To experience the Kingdom of God would be to be a part of it - to know Christ personally and to be a part of what He is doing in His Kingdom.
To express the Kingdom of God would be to simply make it known to others - tell others about the freedom and grace available through Christ's sacrifice.
To expand the Kingdom of God would be to invite others to be a part of it along with you. (Make disciples - remember the Great Commission?)

Now the next part - "and His righteousness"
What is His righteousness? - Righteousness is the state of being perfect, without sin.
So - we seek to be like Christ (since there is no one but Him that is perfect).

And the last part - "and all these things will be added to you". What things will be added??
If you read directly before this verse you'll see that it is all about worry. We worry about so many things! The Bible mentions a few specific things that we all worry about - what to eat or drink, what to wear. Let me pose a question - what do you seek after? Money? Happiness? Family? Friends? Comfort or Security?
The Bible says that if we seek FIRST the Kingdom of God (to Experience, Express & Expand it) and His righteousness (to be like Christ) than all those other things that we seek will be added to us according to God's perfect will.
Think about it. If we seek God's Kingdom first we'll certainly be secure (there is no more secure place than in the arms of the Master), and we will be part of the biggest and most powerful family there ever was or will be - God's family. If we seek to be like Christ - we'll find a friend (there's no better friend than Jesus - cheesy I know, but true). Our treasure will be in Heaven (rather than treasure here on Earth where moth and rust destroy), instead of happiness we'll find Joy - deep, abiding Joy. The Bible says that the Fruits of the Spirit are peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are the things we experience through seeking God's Kingdom first.

There is so much more to all of this - I just might have to blog about it later.
Til then - let's make His Kingdom priority 1.