Putting God First
- by Oswald Chambers
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added to you" - Matthew 6:33
When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary
that human ears have ever heard. ". . . seek first the kingdom of God . . . ." Even
the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, "But I must
live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed."
The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to
take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the
right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our
lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.
". . . do not worry about your life . . ." (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out
that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying
about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for
anything in his life is blessed -- no, that person is a fool.
But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating
focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison
to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, "Don't make food and drink the controlling
factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God."
Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it;
they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they
do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible.
Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with
God first, and everything else second.
It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life
to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of
Jesus in these verses.