Seek!

Seek!

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33 KJV

The greatest danger to the eternal is the false pressure of the immediate. The world has conditioned us to think only of the now, and why it is important to get it all now. We tell ourselves that we follow a timetable for the milestones of our lives; we want to have specific things in place before we get married, before we have children, before we buy or build our first house, and all the other layers of life that we have to encounter. The world also tries to define for us what success means, without really being able to nail it down specifically. It is a definition that is always evolving, because the world cannot define something it cannot refine. There really is no crime in the pursuit and the timeline; what is important is to define the scale of preference and know what is really important. 

Today's extract lays out very clearly the things that are really important. There is a power behind the eternal, as it is the control of the ephemeral. If I know what is really important, my life's pursuits and priorities will line up accordingly. God tells me very clearly what his perfect will is, and it is that I seek first His kingdom. To seek his kingdom is to know that it is my most prized possession. To have it is to know that I hold on to something bigger and better than anything the world can ever offer me. To seek takes time and effort, but the man who seeks knows that the end of the search always brings a good result. And it is a kingdom because God is in control, with a defined territory and loyal subjects. He commands the entire universe and it responds. That is the God who has asked me to seek his kingdom. 

If there was nothing to be gained, God would not emphasize it this much. He knows that I have many legitimate needs, such as food, clothing and shelter. He is the God who simply commands and even ravens can bring food to feed a prophet. He knows I need these things but he has to know that my heart will not cling to created things rather than the Creator. I do not claim right by right, but by grace. It is not of my own strength, but of grace. God will and has always supplied the grace, but I must respond the right way. It won't pay me to seek God on my own terms, but on his own; after all, it is His kingdom, not mine. When I seek him, I will find him. When I find him, I have found all that really matters. Every other thing will follow, as long as I am in the centre of God's will. If I have God's kingdom, every other thing knows its place and limits. If I don't have it, it really does not matter what else I have. God's time of favour is here.