Seek ye first the kingdom of God

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Jesus is telling us to put God’s kingdom ahead of everything else we chase, and He promises that the rest will come once we do. It’s an easy verse to quote, but it’s much harder to live out, so I want to think through what it looks like in everyday life.

How do we do this in practice?

For me, the best place to start is the way we pray, because so many of our prayers are lists of things we want God to give us. If we’re serious about seeking His kingdom first, then our prayers should start with what God wants before they get to what we want.

Here I will discuss five things we can ask God for that put His kingdom first, and each one comes with a promise we that we can look forward as mentioned in the Bible.

1. Ask God for His vision

Joel 2:28 says, “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” God wants to give His people vision, and since this is His creation, His plans for our lives are always better than the ones we make for ourselves.

So instead of complaining to God about money or asking Him for more things, we can ask Him to show us His will, His plan, and His purpose for our lives. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Once God shows us His vision, we need to hold on to it and act on it, which is why Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.” A written vision keeps us on track when life gets busy.

2. Ask God for wisdom

In 1 Kings 3:5, God appeared to King Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” Solomon could have asked for anything, but he asked for wisdom and said, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9).

God was pleased with that answer, so He gave Solomon more than he asked for. 1 Kings 3:13 says, “And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days.” That promise came true, because 1 Kings 10:23 says, “So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.”

The same offer is open to us today, because James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

3. Pray for God’s favor

The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart, and Acts 13:22 says, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” God’s favor was on David his whole life, and we can ask God for that same favor over our own lives.

We can see that favor when King Saul hunted David, because 1 Samuel 23:14 says, “Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.” Saul had an army behind him, but he never caught David, because God protected him every step of the way.

God gave David victory in battle after battle, from the day he killed Goliath with a sling and a stone (1 Samuel 17:50) to his wins over the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:17-25) and the Moabites and Syrians (2 Samuel 8). After those wars, 2 Samuel 8:6 says, “So the LORD preserved David wherever he went.”

4. Pray for strategy

A vision needs a plan, and the people of God in the Bible often won because God gave them a strategy instead of just strength. Proverbs 20:18 says, “Plans are established by counsel; By wise counsel wage war.”

When the Philistines came against David a second time, he asked God what to do, and 2 Samuel 5:23 says, “Therefore David inquired of the LORD, and He said, ‘You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.’” God’s plan that day was different from the first battle, so David needed to ask again instead of repeating what had worked before.

Nehemiah’s enemies wanted to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall, so he had half of his men work and half stand guard with spears (Nehemiah 4:16). Gideon won with just three hundred men because he followed God’s plan (Judges 7), and that reminds us that the right strategy matters more than the size of our resources.

So when we face a hard decision at work or at home, we can ask God to show us how to do it, and Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

5. Pray for the right people and the right path

We can ask God to bring the right people into our lives and to lead us into the right settings, the right environment, and down the right path, so that we fulfill the plans, the will, and the purpose He has for us.

Ruth is a beautiful example, because Ruth 2:3 says, “And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.” What looked like chance was God leading her to the man who would change her life.

God led Philip in the same way, because in Acts 8:29 the Spirit sent him to a stranger on the road and said, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” That one conversation led the Ethiopian official to faith in Jesus, and Psalm 32:8 gives us the same promise, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”

How God answered this prayer for me

When I started praying this way, God sent a Fisheries Observer my way, and we ended up having a great conversation about life. By the end of our talk I was the one encouraging the observer, which is something I never dreamed I would do, so I know that meeting was God’s answer to my prayer for the right people.

It taught me that when God brings the right people across our path, He sometimes brings them so that we can be a blessing to them. Yet my prayer had been the other way around: I was asking Him to send someone who would encourage me and draw me closer to Him. It dawned on me that part of His answer was to help me encourage someone else.

The next time we pray, we can ask for God’s vision, wisdom, favor, and guidance, and for the right people to walk alongside us. We can also ask Him to show us whom we can serve. Then we can trust Him with the rest, remembering Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”