I Want This

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  Matthew 6:33

We have all been shopping and seen things that grab our attention and our mind thinks, “Oh I want this!” Then, our conscience steps in and asks you if you really need this?

How about the things in life that you want? As a child, we often say when we grow up, we want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a banker, or a farmer, or an engineer, or a teacher, etc. We all want things as we mature. I want a new car! I want a new house! I want a new job!

Now we do have needs in our lives, and God knows that: Jesus says “Your Father knows that you need all these things.” You DO have legitimate needs in this world, and it is not wrong to want to be provided for—and especially to care for your own family, which we are commanded by God elsewhere to do.

But knowing that we can really only focus on ONE primary thing; we can really only have ONE master, Jesus tells us in verses 31-32, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” Jesus says these material worries are what most people focus on. And He doesn’t deny that you need some of those things, but because you can really only have ONE master of your life, He then utters these famous words: “Seek first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, He is saying: Focus on the main thing, and I’ll make sure your needs are taken care of.

The first step to getting what you want in life is knowing what you want. Jesus said, in essence, ‘The key to getting what you want out of life is to focus on what I want for your life.’ Note the words ‘seek first’. This word ‘seek’ means ‘to strive for diligently’ or ‘to desire strongly’. The action is continuous. It says, ‘Keep on striving for, keep on seeking, keep on desiring daily.’ When Jesus says, ‘Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness,’ it means you don’t have to pray about what your top priority in life ought to be; everything you do will be ordered by those two things. Where you work, how you spend your time, the person you marry, how you manage your money, the relationships you form, the pastimes you enjoy, the purchases you make—all of these will be sifted and sorted through one filter: ‘Is this for His kingdom? Does it relate to His righteousness?’

This verse’s meaning is as direct as it sounds. We are to seek the things of God as a priority over the things of the world. Primarily, it means we are to seek the salvation that is inherent in the kingdom of God because it is of greater value than all the world’s riches. Does this mean that we should neglect the reasonable and daily duties that help sustain our lives? Certainly not. But for the Christian, there should be a difference in attitude toward them. If we are taking care of God’s business as a priority—seeking His salvation, living in obedience to Him, and sharing the good news of the kingdom with others—then He will take care of our business as He promised—and if that’s the arrangement, where is worrying?

But how do we know if we’re truly seeking God’s kingdom first? There are questions we can ask ourselves. “Where do I primarily spend my energies? Is all my time and money spent on goods and activities that will certainly perish, or in the service of God—the results of which live on for eternity?” Believers who have learned to truly put God first may then rest in this holy dynamic: “…and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Can’t you see how living this way would transform your marriage, your work, your family, your finances, and every other area of your life? But in order to pursue the priorities of the Kingdom, you must first have a relationship with the King. You won’t even know where the Kingdom is, or what it looks like, until you know the King. And you can know Him. How? As you open the pages of His Word and open your heart, there He will reveal Himself to you. And as you spend time with Him in prayer, He will respond to you.

These “negative” aspects of the kingdom run counter to a heresy that is gaining ground around the world, the so-called “prosperity gospel.” A growing number of false teachers are gathering followers under the message “God wants you to be rich!” But that philosophy is not the counsel of the Bible—and it is certainly not the counsel of Matthew 6:33, which is not a formula for gaining wealth. It is a description of how God works. Jesus taught that our focus should be shifted away from this world—its status and its lying allurements—and placed upon the things of God’s kingdom.

God has promised to provide for His own, supplying every need (Philippians 4:19), but His idea of what we need is often different from ours, and His timing will only occasionally meet our expectations. For example, we may see our need as riches or advancement, but perhaps God knows that what truly we need is a time of poverty, loss or solitude. When this happens, we are in good company. God loved both Job and Elijah, but He allowed Satan to absolutely pound Job (all under His watchful eye), and He let that evil woman, Jezebel, break the spirit of His own prophet Elijah (Job 1–2; 1 Kings 18–19). In both cases, God followed these trials with restoration and sustenance.

Make God and His kingdom your priority, and then let HIM take care of your material concerns. That’s the context and the general meaning of this verse.