We are continuing to look at some of your favorite Bible verses that you’ve sent to me.  If you have a favorite verse or a verse you’ve wondered about, email or send me a message! 

Today we are looking at Matthew 6:33, but this is another passage where we really need to look at this passage in its greater context.  Let’s look at Matthew 6: 25-34:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Matthew 6:33 comes in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ great teaching about the ethics of the kingdom and of following God.  We are told that if we seek first the kingdom and God then we will have all “these things” added to us.  

So, let’s talk about what “these things” are. We see Jesus’ teaching on possessions here.  What is His word about earthly possessions?  Don’t worry about it. The Father knows you need these things. But is not life more than food or clothing or stuff?  

And I love what He tells us, which of us by worrying will add a single hour to our lives. This hits home to me since I am a worrier. I jokingly say that I know my worrying works because 95% of the stuff I worry about never happens.  

The Father knows that we need the stuff of life to live.  But the Father also knows and wants us to know, that life is more than the stuff of earth.  The Lord takes care of His children.  So because of that, we are to see first God’s kingdom. If we seek Him first, we will find that in Him, we have what we need.  

I quoted this from CS Lewis Sunday in my sermon, but it is one of my favorites of his, ““It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  

We settle for the stuff of this world when God wants to offer us something so much greater; so much better. If we will seek His kingdom, we will find that we have all that we need.  There is something so much better than this world, calling out to our souls. 

Seek that.  Chase that. Live for that. And when you do, you find life.  

Another Lewis quote I love is – “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”  Today, see His kingdom and you’ll find you have all you need. 

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