Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Whenever I look at this verse, I think about a list of ingredients leading up to baking a cake. It might sound a little silly, but the reason that comes to mind is there's an important element of doing things in order for it to come out the way that you're hoping.
What if I decided to get the flour and the eggs and I put in the water, mixed it up a little bit, put it in the pan then threw it in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I pulled the pan out and put the rest of the ingredients inside. Imagine if I tried to make the cake in that order. That would be so ridiculous it wouldn't even work. There's a reason that there's a list of steps that will get you to the conclusion that you're hoping for. I want to get the ingredients, mix them together, combine it all up, put it in the pan, put it in the oven, and then I'll get the result I'm hoping for.
I know that sounds silly, but it's that simple when it comes to what Jesus is talking about in reference to this verse. You're going to find this verse in a whole line of what we call the red letters. It's a section of Scripture where Jesus has been talking for a long time. In the Bible, these red letters signify that it's His voice that we're hearing.
Seeking First the Kingdom
When He says these words that we just read, it's important for every listener to know He intends for them to live in light of their reality, to seek first the Kingdom and everything else will come after. What's interesting for a lot of us is if we're not careful, it is possible to do a bunch of God's stuff without God. We can do things for God and not do those things with God.
It's possible for us to do good deeds and to seek to help other people, maybe even try to make a mark on the world, by the way that we show up to do it. But if we do those things in our own effort, in our own energy, and with our own aim in mind, maybe we will miss the very intention God has for us in connecting with Him and living in the reality of what it means to know Him.
When we seek first the Kingdom of God, that's an important thing to happen in our lives. But the question then comes, what does it mean to seek the Kingdom of God before anything else?
What Is the Kingdom of God?
Well, the Kingdom of God is personified by Jesus Himself, and when He shows up to the world in bodily form, He inhabits this world as the very embodiment of His way, His will, His purposes, the way He lives out His life, the way He leads, the way He speaks, and ultimately, what we see in John chapter 13 is the way that He has come to serve others, to lay down His life.
This was the way of the Kingdom that Jesus embodied, and what you see is in His intention to embody the way of the Kingdom of God and the way that He lived it out. The people who saw His life lived were drawn in and wanted to know more, and ultimately followed Him with their lives.
Living the Kingdom Way
We want to be men and women who seek to embody the way of the Kingdom of God, who fix our eyes on Him, and live in such a way that models exactly what Jesus came to do.
When we seek to live in the way of the Kingdom, when we seek to engage who Jesus is in our life on earth, we begin to live in a way that allows us to usher in the presence of God, and our lives begin to be fulfilled and directed, not according to our purposes or what we think is best, but according to what He wants for our lives.
