Most Wise Counselor, You have encouraged me to set good priorities and stay faithful to them. One that really sticks with me is to seek first Your Kingdom and the righteousness that is found within it. In this command, You’ve promised that, if I comply, all of my needs will be met. In order to seek Your Kingdom, I must turn to You first for my help … align my thoughts with Your desires … pattern my life after Yours … obey You in all things … and, be willingly to serve others on Your behalf. Reality is that people, things, goals and desires compete for priority in my life. They can bump You from first place if I do not forcefully choose to give You first place in everything. Seeking Your Kingdom must become the central focus of my life. I doubt that I will be swayed if … when I ask, I receive what I need … when I seek, I find what I’m looking for … and, when I knock, the doors of heaven are opened to me.
One of the hardest things to overcome in putting You on the throne of my life has been ‘self.’ I can’t help but wonder … how can I be a true believer if I actively seek the praise of others instead of seeking praise that comes from You. My aim should not be to please myself but You, who has given His life to redeem my soul. I must admit that I can do nothing meaningful without Your help. I need to actively work with the Holy Spirit to get my will to fall in line with Your expectations. When I do not, I remove You from the center of my life and I put me there. Another aspect of seeking which is important is that, in everything I do, I should align it with what I want to be done to me. A worthy servant should not put his own good before the good of others. I need to be sensitive and supportive of others so that they will see You more clearly. As I choose to decrease, I give You the opportunity to increase.
In order to prioritize correctly, I must put my affections on the things of Your Kingdom and not the things of the earth. In setting my affections on the things above, my morals and character need to align with Yours. In so-doing, I allow You to take command of my life and give You charge over every aspect of it. In addition, I need to put more effort into seeing things the way You do and not the way the world does. What You did was what You saw Your Father do … I must emulate what You did and give it my best. Putting You first eliminates worry from my life. Worry has no place in my life when I trust that You will be with me in everything I face. I must be careful not to confuse planning with wasting time. When done well, planning helps alleviate worry while wasted time is spent becoming fearful and losing trust in You. That is why I must thoughtfully set my priorities. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom [of God] and His righteousness and all these things will be given you besides.