Jesus Christ seated on a mountain spoke and taught His disciples & the crowd before Him about living their lives in Christ. Matthew, one of the disciples present at this sermon gave his account of these teachings in his book in chapters 5,6, 7. This blog post would be looking at Jesus’ statements in Matthew 6 verses 29 through 33, interestingly Dr. Luke has the same account in his book as well in Luke 12:22-31
Jesus said to them and I believe He is still saying to us that we cannot serve God and be enslaved to money – Matthew 6:24. Jesus Christ did not go through all that struggle for we Christians to slave morning and night for money without doing the things Jesus would have us do which is to – seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness always. Matthew 6:33
By all means, it is great for believers to have money but I do not think Jesus would want or expect us to be consumed with only making money 24hours everyday of our lives. Jesus Christ who is our standard was not consumed with only making money to meet His immediate needs or show off the wealth of His father. Neither did He encourage His disciples to, He told them to travel light and wherever they were welcomed to preach the gospel or heal the sick, their needs of food, drink and clothes to wear were catered for- Matthew 10:8-10. This for me is an indication that as often as we are about doing what God wills us to do, that is as often as our needs would be met.
Am I saying to you to quit your job? definitely not! I am saying I do not believe God would have us toil night and day only for paper that do not have eternal value, paper that fluctuates in value.
More than often, believers ( myself included) quote this scripture – “do not worry about about what you will eat or drink or wear because God has made provision for us” – Matthew 6:26-32. But we often forget to include the clause in Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:33 – Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously and he will give you everything you need.
In this moment I am reminded that it is when we seek God’s Kingdom and do exactly what God would have us do always, it is there and then that God makes all the provisions for the things we need.
So what does it mean to:
Seek God’s Kingdom:
God’s kingdom is a location where God has absolute authority , a place where the spirit of God has free expression –Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20, Luke 17:21. God’s kingdom means living by God’s power – I Corinthians 4:20. Living by God’s power should start with us individually, in the way we do things, the things that we do and how we do them.
Jesus gave us insight into what it means to seek God’s kingdom in Luke 11:20 – Jesus said, “If I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you“.
Therefore, to seek God’s kingdom means to commit to living a life evident of God’s power. It is not enough to just know or quote scriptures, we should give ourselves to garner depth about God, the power and authority He has given to us through Christ Jesus. So that at least when we speak, we do so with so much grace and power just as Jesus and the disciples of old did.
I will also like to add that seek as recorded by Dr. Luke and Matthew is a present tense which is a pointer that “to seek” God’s kingdom daily is what we should do.
To live righteously:
To live righteously means to live right with God, to do things that please Him always. To live righteously with God’s power that we find as often as we seek means to do the right things with the authority and power God has given Him, ultimately to do the things that God wants us to do with our authority in Christ Jesus.
For God to provide all that you need:
When Jesus Christ sent out His disciples to heal the sick and preach the gospel, He gave to them the authority to do so because in that moment and season they needed the authority to do all the great works assigned to them- Mathew 10:1. The same way as we seek God’s kingdom and He reveals to us things He’d like us to do, He would make provisions for us in that moment or season. I have come to learn that these provisions are not limited to authority, or money or food or cloth. The list is unexhaustive and may include the provision of the gift of men or wisdom and so on. Be rest assured that as you seek and do right with God, He does the providing.
More so, when we are consumed with living for God, in His power and for His glory there is little or no tendency to want anything outside the jurisdiction that He gives us; we would always find contentment with all that He gives us per time.
The disciples of Jesus are classic examples, they were so consumed with propagating the gospel of Christ and they were content with the things they had per time.
That we may stay committed to seeking God’s kingdom and living righteous in Jesus name.