Seeking His Kingdom 1

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. (Matthew 6:33 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®)

That sentence contains 5 ideas: seeking His Kingdom; seeking His Righteousness; doing those things before doing other things; you need things; they will be provided. It is in the context of instruction regarding things that are needed, so it is easy to get focused on that one idea when reading the sentence or considering how to do what it instructs.

Focus instead on the steps it directs me to take. It tells me that somehow, I will find that the things I need will be provided to me if I do two things first. If those two things don’t make sense, or if I don’t have practical ideas about taking the steps, I may not be successful at finding the provision.

“Seeking a plumber” makes sense. Use the Yellow Pages or Angie’s List. “Seeking a job” makes sense. If you were presented with the opportunity to explain either “seeking His Kingdom,” or “seeking His Righteousness,” to a muslim, what would you say?