But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33.
Immediately
we look at these words of Jesus, we find them the most revolutionary
statement human ears ever listened to. “Seek ye first the kingdom of
God.” We argue in exactly the opposite way, even the most
spiritually-minded of us—"But I must live; I must make so much money; I
must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not
the kingdom of God, but how we are to fit ourselves to live. Jesus
reverses the order: Get rightly related to God first, maintain that as
the great care of your life, and never put the concern of your care on
the other things.
“Take no thought for your life . . . .”
Our
Lord points out the utter unreasonableness from His standpoint of being
so anxious over the means of living. Jesus is not saying that the man
who takes thought for nothing is blessed—that man is a fool. Jesus
taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the
dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless
about everything else in comparison to that. Jesus is saying—Don’t make
the ruling factor of your life what you shall eat and what you shall
drink, but be concentrated absolutely on God. Some people are careless
over what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless
about what they wear, and they look as they have no business to look;
they are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them
responsible. Jesus is saying that the great care of the life is to put
the relationship to God first, and everything else second.
It
is one of the severest disciplines of the Christian life to allow the
Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with the teaching of Jesus in
these verses.
About the Author
From My Utmost for his Highest by Oswald Chambers 1993, c1935: (May 21). Discovery House Publishers: Grand Rapids, MI.
Chambers' devotional has been nourishing believers with spiritual wisdom since 1935! Addressing a wide range of topics—including discipleship, faith, love, and obedience—this convenient KJV pocket-sized edition makes it easy to keep daily inspiration with you wherever you go.
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