In Matt 6:33, we read, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
How do we as Christians seek his kingdom and righteousness so all these things will be added unto us? Another question is this if Jesus is God and we need His imputed righteousness, why then is He not telling us to seek “My Kingdom and My righteousness.”?
In 1.John 3, the Bible says the one who does righteousness is righteous. So what Jesus is telling us to do here in Matt 6:33 is to do righteous acts. 1.John, James, and the book of Romans all say the same thing; when we obey the law of Moses, we do righteous acts. So what Jesus is trying to tell us is to obey the law of Moses; when we obey, all these things will be added unto us.
But why is He not telling us to seek “My Kingdom and My righteousness” if He is God?
The first and most important commandment in the law of Moses is; I am Yehovah your God, you shall have no other gods before Me. So if we are to obey the law of Moses, it would be a sin for us to worship or pray to Jesus. It is also essential to notice Jesus never says, “worship Me” or “pray to Me” or “trust in Me.” He always says “worship Yehovah,” “pray to Yehovah,” “trust in Yehovah.” Who is Yehovah according to Jesus? In the Gospels, Jesus says Yehovah is His God, and our God and Yehovah are greater than He. (Gospel of John). So this is why Jesus is not telling us to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness; He is telling us to seek Yehovah and obey Yehovahs law, the law of Moses.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying; I am not saying Jesus is not God. Several times we see Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of Man from the book of Daniel, so Jesus’s divinity is not in question. At the same time, we can not deny what He says, His Father Yehovah is His God, and our God and Yehovah are greater than He.
So a better way to translate Matt 6:33 would be:
Seek Yehovah your God, obey the law of Moses, and all these things will be added unto you.
This is a beautiful promise, but it is conditional. We have to seek Yehovah, we have to obey the law of Moses, AND if we do, all these things will be added unto us. But did you notice something? Matt 6:33 tells us to focus on Yehovah instead of our needs.
How do you usually respond when you have a need? As a Christian, you tell God the Father in prayer what you need of Him. But what happens if He does not answer your prayer right away? Most of us act more like a child on Christmas morning, eagerly anticipating our Father’s gift, and the more time that passes and no gift appears, the more worried we get and the more stressed we become until doubt starts to creep in and we suddenly question if God loves us.
How does the Bible expect us to respond when we have a need?
Matt 6:33 says we are to focus not on what we dont have; we focus on our mind, will, emotions, and what we have. What do you have in your life that is more important than your needs right now? If you are a Christian, you have Yehovah as your God, and the fact that He is your God is way more important than your needs. The Bible expects us to acknowledge this truth when a need arises in your life. It expects us to react in a way that shows we believe Yehovah is more important to us than our need.
If Yehovah is more important to you than your needs, then you can know for sure Yehovah will make your needs a priority. To say it another way, if we love Yehovah for who He is and not what He can give us, He will provide us with everything we need.
We need to make Yehovah more important than our needs, but how do we do this? The answer is both easy and challenging simultaneously; this is a choice you have to make. Every time you have a need, you have to choose Yehovah.
I have been a Christian for almost 21 years now; when I first got saved, my pastor told me to look to and trust Jesus for my salvation and my needs. Because I had accepted Jesus as My Lord and Savior, my pastor assured me Jesus would hear my prayer and give me what I asked of Him. My pastor told me Jesus did not care too much about how I lived my life, as long as I was saved and did not commit any big sins like murder or theft. So because Jesus loves me unconditionally, I could always rely on Him healing me, providing for me, and giving me what I needed when I needed it. After all, that is what you do if you love someone unconditionally; you give them what they need when they need it.
So I trusted what my pastor said, and I asked Jesus to heal me and provide for me, believing He loved me unconditionally. I trusted Jesus to meet my needs the way I wanted Him to, exactly when I needed Him to. So when nothing happened, I became stressed, worried, and soon started thinking maybe He had not heard me, perhaps my faith was not strong enough.
When I decided to obey Jesus and not my pastor, all of this changed. I still have needs, but every time I have a need, I choose to speak to myself and remind myself I dont need anything; I only need Yehovah. My needs are still there, but instead of being stressed out and worried about how and when Yehovah will meet my needs, I have peace and faith. When I am focused on Yehovah and not my needs, it is easy to trust Yehovah for my healing and provision because I know He is my healer, My provider, and in Him, I am already healed and provided for. It is easy to rest in peace knowing that He will heal and provide for me when the time is right, and He will meet all of my needs while I am waiting because I serve the same God who provided for us in the desert when we left Egypt. If He was able to meet our needs in the desert, He is more than able to meet my needs here and now while I wait for Him to give me my promised land of healing and provision.
This is a choice I have to make each day, and sometimes several times a day. But I can testify from personal experience; it is worth making this choice. When you make Yehovah more important to you than your needs, He makes your needs a priority. (Matt 6:33)
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