My daily Bible verse last Friday was a very familiar one from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” [Matthew 6:33 NLT]
That verse is SO familiar I read it and then “dismissed” it. As the morning progressed, however, I kept thinking about that verse. I started wondering what it means to “Seek.”
The Greek word is zeteo, a verb, and it means simply to seek, search for, desire, require, demand. As I looked at the meaning, HELP-Word-studies added: to seek by inquiring; to investigate to reach a binding resolution, to search, “getting to the bottom of the matter.”
When I look at words like inquire, investigate, search, and get to the bottom of the matter, I am reminded that seeking the Kingdom of God is not a half-hearted matter. It is not just going to church on Sunday and getting fed a message from someone else who did the heavy inquiring and investigating.
It requires so much more—things like studying and searching the Scriptures, praying and then praying some more. It requires fellowship with others also engaged in “seeking.” It requires living a righteous life in Christ.
Seeking “first” also speaks to me of priority. Too much of my energy and time is often devoted to the “everything else” I need. I must make sure that seeking the Kingdom is my number one priority—all the time.
Help me, O LORD, to have a mindset that “seeks” You, “first” and always. Amen
