Matthew 6:33

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” ~ Matthew 6:33

Some time ago I was reading through the book of Matthew and this verse stood out for me.  I recommend reading it in context (from Matthew 6:25-34).  The passage speaks about not worrying about your needs (food, clothes, etc.) because God cares about you and will provide for your needs.

As I read further though, it became apparent to me that there is a “string” attached to the “Do not worry”.  Jesus tells us to seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness.  HIS, in this case, refers to God.  So, in my mind, Jesus is telling us to put God and Righteousness above all else, then we do not need to worry about worldly things because God will provide for us.

This does not mean that we have the right to be lazy and not work to earn our living, it rather means that we should not neglect His kingdom and His righteousness in our daily lives and God will provide us with opportunities to have our needs provided for.

This really hit home when I realized I wasn’t spending as much time with God on a daily basis as I feel I should be.  There are times when I don’t even find the time to read the 3 chapters of the Bible that I want to read on a daily basis.  There are times it feels like my life is rushing by…

I am one of those people who NEED 8 hours of sleep every night.  I am also one of those people who take at least 1 hour to fall asleep.  This means that to wake up at 6am, I have to go to bed at 9pm.  Add in the time I am at work, it means that I am only at home and awake 4h30m (and that is if I don’t visit Mark, or have functions on in the evenings).  Most of the time I am at home I am cleaning, doing laundry or other household tasks.

So where does a person find time for God?  Since I value my time with God as my number 1 priority in life, I would like to say that I find an hour of my time for him every day, but that is not always the case.

I’ve tried to wake up early to spend time with God in the morning.  That does not work because if I don’t get a good night’s rest, I oversleep.

I’ve tried to take my hour lunch to read God’s word during lunch time, but there are days when work is so busy I don’t take a full 1 hour lunch break.

Then I try to spend my 1 hour with God in the evenings, but sometimes I am so tired by the time I get home that I just flop into bed and go to sleep immediately.

Therefore I know full well how difficult it is to put God’s Kingdom first in the modern world where everyone get’s caught up in the rat race.  The best solution I have at the moment is to split the 1 hour with God up into 3 parts… 15min in the morning, 15min in the evening and 30 minutes during lunch.  Then make sure that you at least spend 5min at each time with him, more on the days when you can do more, but never less.

Since I started putting God first in my life, a lot of things have changed, for the better.  I am more financially stable than I have ever been, I have a wonderful God-fearing boyfriend (Mark), I am happier than I have been in a long time, I am mostly stress-free and I have amazing friends.

So just remember the verse:

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” ~ Matthew 6:33