Jesus Christ said in John 10:10(NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Our precious and powerful Lord and Savior gave his life on the cross to make a more than abundant life available to everyone, not just to those who are religious or those who believe in him. He sacrificed his life for us all; believers and unbelievers alike, because this is the Will of God. Our Heavenly Father wants everyone to live an incredibly blessed existence, and this is clear, because a more than abundant life is a whole lot of abundance. It’s living abundantly in every aspect of our lives; in our relationships, finances, wholeness, health, and well-being. A more than abundant life is a life that contains all the blessings and completeness that God wants us to have in Christ. It’s ours for the taking, and we shouldn’t allow anyone or anything to keep us from all that God has in store.
The reality is that not only do we allow people and things to keep us from living a more than abundant life, in many cases, we keep ourselves from living abundantly. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 6:33(NLT), “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Seeking the Kingdom of God first is not a matter of choice for true followers of Christ. We must submit and be obedient to this commandment; it’s required. Our Redeemer very plainly tells us that if we seek any other thing than the Kingdom of God, we are going to be on the losing side, and we will not have everything we need. In other words, we will self-sabotage, deny ourselves blessings, and live far beneath our privilege when we fail, refuse, neglect, or ignore to make seeking God first a continual practice in our lives.
It’s up to us to seek God first, but sometimes, many of us seek everything else. To seek is to search out and pursue in an effort to take hold of the thing we’ve sought. We don’t just seek things or people without a purpose for doing so. We seek to acquire and therefore will only seek people or things that we believe will add value to our lives. Our Heavenly Father, the One True Living God, is worthy to be sought. This is an astoundingly important truth to have as the foundation of our believing. He should be sought above all else, but often, instead of seeking God, we seek other people and other things first. We believe that these people and things are the key to our happiness, but it just isn’t so. Everything that we could ever possibly need can be found in our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, and believing this truth is not a suggestion, it’s a requirement to please God and to walk according to our faith in Him.
Living life according to our faith in God isn’t a guessing game. God’s priority for us is that we seek Him, His Kingdom, and His righteousness above all else, and He tells us how to get this done in His Word. So, this isn’t something we need to hope for, pray about, and speculate over. We are to desire God, to seek Him, to search for Him, because this demonstrates that we truly understand that He is worthy to be sought. Acts 17:26-28(NLT) tells us, “26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him–though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist.”
Life is not meant to be a living death. It’s not meant to be focused on money, a paycheck, fashion, a house, car, food or drink. Most of us tend to focus on things like those and when something goes wrong, we immediately turn to fear. God wants our go-to response to be one of faith in Him. That’s how we seek Him, by turning to Him and trusting Him continually as our Provider and Protector. Jesus Christ teaches in Matthew 6:31-32(NLT), “31 So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.” God knows exactly what we need. He knew that we’d have a need way before we did, and He has promised to take care of our needs when we place our trust in Him.
Life is given to us by God to come alive to Him and to live according to the riches and righteousness of His Kingdom. He tells us in His Word that seeking Him, and His Kingdom is our greatest priority, but it should never be viewed as just one on a list of many. Seeking God and His Kingdom first is also our greatest privilege and honor, and it is lived and demonstrated as we invite Him into every aspect of our existences and trust His love and power with all our hearts. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“The Greatest Priority of Life”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Christian devotions, Christian Encouragement, Growing in Christ, God’s Love, Learning