Introduction: 

In a world filled with decisions and choices, what to do, where to go, what to study, who to marry, when to buy that house, how to invest money, when to switch careers, the list goes on and on. How do we know what exactly to pursue?

Over the next five days we will be uncovering God’s point of view on this topic. This devotional will help us ask ourselves if we are putting God first and foremost or if He has become an afterthought, where God fits into the big picture, and how putting God first can in turn help us make these life choices. 

Matthew 6:33- But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. To be completely honest, as simple as this verse may seem to you, I struggled for YEARS to actually understand what it meant. Like seek God first and all the other things will come. But like how do I seek God? Pray, read my Bible? Okay check, I’ve been doing that. But the key word here is “seek.” We talk more about seeking vs looking tomorrow. 

I watched sermons, read some posts online, but it’s like as deep as they went, nothing clicked until I stopped trying to read the verse and let the verse read me. When it read me, I was left with questions like, is He the most important person in my life, or amongst the many important people? Where do my interests lie? Am I leaving Him behind? What temporary things have I been replacing God with? What matters the most to me, the eternal or the earthly? This verse challenged me with these questions and I sat for hours trying to answer all of them. Then I finally understood what it meant. Put first the things of God, become Christlike, ask myself WWJD in certain situations and make that my only focus and the God who knows my heart, will also supply all my needs (Phillipians 4:19). 

Questions:

1. What things in your life have you put before God?

2. Is He the most important person in your life? Not just by mouth but by actions?

3. What Bible verses help you realign when the going gets rough?

For years I have heard these words used interchangeably. Seeking and looking, looking and seeking. Are they the same, or are they different? Today we will dive into that and see what it means when Matthew 6:33, tells us to Seek the Kingdom. 

These two words are verbs, and while they do seem similar, I do believe they are different. Look is defined as “to try and see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes.” While, seek means “to try and find, to search.” Seeking is more action based. You can be stationary, completely still and look at or for something. Whereas, seeking comes with action; getting up and actually searching for something. And I believe Jesus was intentional with His word choice here, cause He just doesn't want us to sit and be like “Oh look, there is God, there is the right thing to do, there He is…” and let it pass us by. Instead He wants us to actively try and be like Him, mimic the things He does, His desires, and put Him as our overall focus. A call to action!

Let’s define the Kingdom. Kingdom broken down is a king's domain, the ruling area of the king, the spiritual realm over which God reigns as King, or the fulfillment of God’s Will on Earth. God’s influence over a territory. 

Okay back on track… What does it mean to Seek the Kingdom Of God? First, I believe it means a yearning to go further and deeper in your relationship with God, even beyond being saved. It's deeper than that. Spending time, becoming like Him. Getting saved (which is a beautiful act) believe it or not, is just the beginning. Imagine this, you get married and have this big beautiful dream wedding and then the next day you and the person you married don’t talk - like zero communication. Then you sit back and ask yourself.. Ah “was this person just in it for the celebration and not the commitment/relationship?” It is the same thing when we get saved and enter into a relationship with God; that's just getting into the door. I wholeheartedly believe God never wants us to be satisfied with where we are in our Christian walk, He wants us to go deeper.

As day two comes to a close, the major thing I want us to take away is that in order for us to seek the Lord or the Kingdom of God, we have to make it a goal, a desire, to commune with Him, listen to Him, grow with Him, and have an intimate relationship with Him. 

Questions:

1. When everything seems to be going good, why is it still important to still seek God?

2. What does seeking the Lord look like in your life?

3. Where are you spending most of your energy?

Your heart. That is all God has ever asked for and is asking for in the verse for today. In order to seek Him we must seek Him with all of our heart, not one foot in and one foot out. To love your God with all of your heart. In our earthly relationships, when you want to get to know someone, you have the desire to spend time with them, talk to them, discover their likes and dislikes and after some time, the fondness for them grows into a like and eventually a love. 

When you think of loving God, what comes to mind? Doing something for Him or is it a deep incomparable hunger and yearning within you? It’s hard to compare our relationship with God to the relationships here on earth. People will never be enough, ask the woman at the well in John 4. If we keep on focusing on earthly things and our heart here, there will forever be a longing/thirst for that which we will never be able to quench. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. - Colossians 3:2

While studying and putting my thoughts together for this devotional, my research lead me to Isaiah 55 (honestly I suggest reading the whole chapter), but for the point I am trying to get at look at verse 6 “seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon Him while he is near;'' Seek the Lord while He may be found… God, what do You mean while You can be found? So you are trying to tell me that there is a time where You can’t be found? The answer is yes. The days before Christ returns are called the Church Age. The Church Age in simple terms is the time between Pentecost and the Rapture. A time where Christ will return to collect His followers and then the antichrist will be revealed to run amuck on the earth. 

I know that might be a lot to think about, as I just slipped that in there. But as hard and deep as it may sound… that is the reality. God does not want us to be apart from Him, but to spend eternity with Him, and all He asks us to do, is to seek Him with all our hearts. 

Questions: 

1. How hard is it to love someone you can’t see?

2. What are ways God expresses His love to you?

3. What does God mean when He says “David is a man after my own heart”?

Day 4: Process vs Promise 

James 4:8

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 

It’s a process. Oftentimes we get excited about promises, but we forget that before we get there, we may go through struggles and hard times. Just because we are seeking after God, does not mean that struggles won’t come. You have to go through the process to get the promise, if you will, God will. 

“Come closer and He will come” today's scripture says. Choose God over the world. The Bible is a book of decisions, options, and choices. Choose Light or darkness. These decisions that are given to us often refer to a term that I am sure you are familiar with, free will. God has given man free will that we can choose hopefully Him over everything else. To choose to seek Him. Choose to seek His love. Because genuine love is not forced, it's natural, it's a longing and deep desire, to grow and meet the needs of the one we are choosing to love. God is in charge of your destiny but has put us in charge of our destination, and when we align ourselves with what God is doing.. Or trying to do through us “...all other things will be added”

Again, sometimes it is easy for us to focus on the “all other things will be added” (the promise), which gets us all happy in our Spirit, that we completely skip and ignore “Seek First” (process), our call to action. Think of it like this, what if God gave us everything we wanted, when we wanted it, with no cares as to how it may affect us in the long run? Is that what a Father should do? “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” -James 4:3 God knows the end from the beginning; what we need and don’t. The only way that we can celebrate the diamond is by going through a process for it to look the way it does. A process that helps cultivate us to become that valued item. 

As today comes to a close there are a couple things I want us to think about:

Questions: 

1. Try to imagine your life if God gave you everything you wanted. Where would you be, what would you be doing?

2. What promises of God are you looking forward to the most?

3. What current process are you going through, and how can you make sure you are focusing on the process more than the promise?

By no means am I wanting or desiring for us to neglect the things of life. I am not telling you to forget to pay your bills all in order to seek the Kingdom of God. But what I want us to do is to put aside the worries and affairs of life and find peace in just trusting God. We need to value our relationship with Him above all of us and allow Him to meet all our needs. The beautiful thing about this verse is that God is saying indirectly that He knows what we need. He is telling us to come after me first and I will provide you what I know you need. Rather than us trying to go out running around trying to get/do a whole bunch of stuff, if we do this one thing God will do the gathering for us. It is not going to be easy but this comes from a place of trust, surrendering, and faith, that God is going to do what He said He is going to do if only we seek after Him. 

In closing, I hope I was able to explain the importance of seeking God. As you read the Bible throughout this year and even onward, I hope you have an “ah ha” moment every time you see the word seek and put in play the call to action God desires us to do, on the road to growing our relationship with Him. 

Put your bet on God while He can be found and watch Him blow your mind for all of eternity.  

Take care and God bless.