Seek First His Kingdom [Matthew 6]

33"But seek first His kingdom
    and His righteousness,
    and all these things will be added to you.
34"So do not worry about tomorrow;
    for tomorrow will care for itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6 (and 7) is a continuation of the words and wisdom of Jesus that began in Matthew 5. As I prayerfully read and reread chapter 6, some things began to pop out at me. First, verses 1-18 are summarized by verse one:

         1"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;

Jesus repeatedly used the words "in secret" in describing spiritual practices like praying, giving and fasting. How against man's natural tendency that is. But along with the "in secret" was the word reward. So as you put off your natural tendency to let people know how spiritual you are and put on letting God's grace flow through you God's way, there will be a reward for you. Think about it, you can get praise of men now, or you can have God's reward for eternity.

The next thing that caught my attention was at the end of verse 24:

                        You cannot serve God and wealth.

Jesus talked about wealth from verse 19 to the end of the chapter at verse 34. He explained very clearly that God knows how to take care of you and your needs and that He wants to take care of you. However, He can't if your focus is on you providing for yourself. And so we come to the final famous verses of Matthew 6:33-34 as written above.

May you commit Matthew 6:33-34 to memory and ask God to make your life reflect the truth of these words in the days, months and years to come.