Saturday, February 14, 2009

Today’s Passage: Matthew 6

Matthew 6 contains many great verses, but, there were two major things that stuck out to me when reading this passage. First, was the warning of being hypocrites in our spiritual life and second was the admonition that Christ gives us in verse 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

I am so appreciative of how forthcoming Jesus is in this passage. He does not leave any room for suggestions. Rather, his speech in this passage is: When you do this, don’t be like the hypocrites, instead do it like this. Then we see Him teach us how we should pray, fast, etc. I remember growing up and hearing people pray at various occasions, and I would think to myself, “wow, they used a lot of big words and it was a really long prayer.” I mean, certainly people who do that God blesses and looks upon with gladness. So now it was up to me to learn some bigger words and get a little lengthier in my prayers! (At least that’s what I first thought.) Then when I read this passage, I was comforted to know that God is not looking for the outward appearance in my spiritual walk. Don’t misunderstand; while living righteously will obviously reflect in our daily life, we can rest assured that God is looking at our heart, and not our outward appearance of spiritual maturity. God does not have too many nice things to say about hypocrites in the Bible, nor in this passage.

As I have been growing in my spiritual walk over the years, I think, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” has been a difficult thing to grasp. The reason is, often times, I find myself just wanting the things that I want and expect that my prayers to God to be sufficient for receiving my desires and wants. My logic was that I had been seeking God; hence my prayer to Him for the thing I wanted. However, the word seek here is a present imperative word. The idea is, “be seeking…” It’s not a one-time seek first. It’s an ongoing action of seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness. Then when our hearts are in line with Christ, our wants and desires are shaped into His desires for our lives.

The challenge today is, first: inspect your life for things you may be doing for mere attention and outward appearance of spirituality. Second, is to be seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness (continual basis). When we are truly and honestly doing this, God will supply our needs. We did not discuss this here, but the context of verse 33 is Christ telling us not to worry about the details of life. He will provide what we need. Rather, we are to be seeking God at all times.