Thursday, May 30, 2013

40 Days of Prayer - Thursday, May 30 - Devotion 9 - His Kingdom First by Ben Delong


His Kingdom First

Matthew 6:33-34 - But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  (NASB)

 So often we come to God in prayer asking for our needs.  "Heal my mother who is sick."  "Help me to get out of debt."  "Help me get that big promotion at work."  These aren't necessarily bad prayers, but our focus is wrong.  We are asking God to help build our kingdom.  Instead of us seeking God's will and God's righteousness first, we skip straight to asking God for what we want.

 The context of these verses is Jesus talking about worry.  He tells us not to worry about our lives - the clothes that we will wear or the food that we will eat.  God will take care of all of those things for us if we trust Him.  Instead, Jesus tells us to first seek after God - His Kingdom and His Righteousness - and everything else will be taken care of.  This applies especially to our prayers.  If we focus our time with God on His Kingdom and His Righteousness, everything else will fall into place.

Do we really believe this? Do we believe God will take care of everything else in our life if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first?  We often talk about things we care most about. The same holds true for our prayers. We often pray most about the things we care most about.  What in our life are we seeking first? Spend time this day asking the Lord to help you throw off the things (sins) that so easily entangle and fix your eyes on Jesus.

In Christ, Ben Delong

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