March Like Jesus
… In Handling Our Money – Part IV
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:19-34
Key Verse: Matthew 6:33
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need”.
When was the last time you lost something and spent a lot of time looking for it? This captures the basic thought of our Key Verse for today.
We came into this world separated from God because of inherited sin. Because of this, there is a inherent desire for us to seek that which we have lost… God.
Unfortunately, far too many people spend time and money trying to fill God’s spot in their lives with worldly things. The world around us goes crazy spending millions of dollars on cosmetics, vacations, drugs, or alcohol trying to satisfy this deep hunger in their souls. Jesus came to convince the world that God is the only one who can fill the gap. Jesus teaches whoever listens that if they seek God above all else, they get all that their souls are craving for.
Today’s Key Verse reminds us that God wants to give us everything we need in this life. However, anyone that is looking to fill God’s spot with worldly “stuff” cannot realize this wonderful promise. Most unbelievers simply do not trust that God would give them all that they need so they spend their lives running after that which only God can give them.
Jesus focuses much of His teaching on trying to convince people that God is their good, good Father and that they can trust Him to do what He says He will do!
Our Father in Heaven loves to give good gifts to His children; however, His children seldom know what a good gift is. Many times, God’s good gift seems like a bitter pill for us, and our faith must trust that God knows what He is doing!
The first part of the formula for living the Abundant Life that Jesus died to give us is to seek God’s Kingdom about all else. This circles back to the idea of looking for something you have lost. To seek God’s Kingdom above all else is to spend more energy and time on loving God than on anything else in this life. The Apostle Paul put it this way:
Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. (Philippians 2:12)
The NIV translates this in blunter words, saying we should work out our salvation with “fear and trembling”. When we give ourselves to this task, we are not earning our salvation. We are proving that we believe in our salvation and that God is worthy of such effort.
May God help all of us to seek Him daily and with the highest priority. When we give Him our best, we can rest in the promise that God will give us all we need for this life!
Father, I want to seek You above all else. Grant me the wisdom and strength to make this the highest priority of my life. I ask this in Jesus’s Name, amen.