How to Seek God's Kingdom and Righteousness, So All Things Will Be Added to You
What does this mean?
This popular Bible verse is telling us to seek God's kingdom in all we do and in return God will provide for our needs. In other parts of the Bible, Jesus say "ask and you shall receive" and "seek and you shall find". We get the feeling that all the riches we can imagine are just waiting at our fingertips for us to reach out and grab them. This Bible verse, however; inserts a caveat to our Easter egg hunt. It tells us that first we should "seek God's kingdom and righteousness". The Bible verses preceding this verse tells us not to worry about anything. Don't worry about what you should eat, or drink, or wear. The only thing you should be worrying about is God's kingdom and righteousness. It doesn't say that you should attain perfection in seeking God, but just seek it. Just doing that will open the gates to the kingdom of God which is filled with the riches of your fantasies and more. The awesome thing about seeking God's kingdom is that you could have a million dollars and you don't even care, because you are in the presence of God and a million dollars is nothing compared to that.
Seeking God's kingdom means tailoring your plans to align with the will of God. In all of your intentions you must want to please God. If you are wondering how to know if you are seeking to please God ask the following questions: "How does this further God's kingdom?" or "What would God have me do?" The popular saying is "What would Jesus do?" When all of your choices are made with God in mind then "all these things shall be added unto you".
How do I do that?
When you want something really big or you have a big decision to make, try to think about how it fits into God's plan. Just taking a few minutes to ponder this can make all the difference in your success. Keep a prayer journal. Write down in that journal all the things you hope for and how you think they fit into God's plan for you or why you think they would make God happy and then pray about it. It might be fun to look back through your journal in a year or so to see how many things in your journal actually came to pass.
Sometimes it can be difficult to see God in the things we do, but He is there. He just might not be where you thought he'd be.
If you are trying to lose weight, think "how does my weight loss glorify God"? It might be hard to answer this question, because for many of us our reasons for wanting to lose weight are based in vanity. I want to look good. I want to look healthy. How about the fact that laziness and gluttony are among the seven deadly sins... What about the fact that your body is God's temple and you should care for it the way you care for your own home when a most esteemed guest is visiting. What of the fact that God is a healing God who seeks to cure disease. Being overweight is linked to all sorts of health problems. God wants you to be healthy (or Jesus and the prophets wouldn't have gone around healing all those people), so you should live according to God's will.
Paula White - "Put First Things First"
How does accumulating wealth glorify God? It is not necessarily the accumulation of wealth that glorifies God, but what you do with the wealth. Giving tithes and giving to charity constantly shows your faith in God to provide for your needs. After all, "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7)
What about relationships? The Bible says a lot about how we should interact with one another. From the 10 commandments (thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not commit adultery. etc.) , the teachings of Jesus (Love thy enemies and pray for those who persecute you) and Paul's writings (1 Corinthians 13).
Have you been putting God first in your life?
The best way to know if you are in line with God's will is to read your Bible. Read it and continually ask it questions. Pray and meditate on God's word. Remember, just the act of seeking is all it takes to find. God's hand is in everything that happens here on earth. You just have to look for it and when you do, you will find more than you ever imagined.
