Seeking the Kingdom

By Marilyn McGrath

 

 

Meditating on the verse, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33) got me thinking about how we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

 

Perhaps one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways we seek God’s kingdom is in seeing the glory of God in nature. “The whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3). Glory is evidence of the presence of God. God is present everywhere around us.

 

Dallas Willard defined the kingdom of God “as the range of God’s effective will, hence anything that obeys God’s will is within his kingdom. It has always existed but has been made accessible to everyone through Jesus Christ.”

 

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” Lk 17:20-21.

 

And so we find God’s kingdom in people around us. Their words, their thoughts (ideas) and their actions can reveal the kingdom to us, but mostly, I think, it is in their attitude towards and relationship with God that they reveal the kingdom. We see that in Abraham’s response to God in Gen 15:6 “And he believed God, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” We are righteous when we believe God as Abraham did.

 

When we obey God, we are also righteousness:

 

Psalm 119:106 “I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances.”

 

Isa 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

 

Mt 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

 

Jesus exemplified righteousness for us:

 

Isa 11:5 “Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins and faithfulness the belt of His waist.”

 

Jer 23:6 “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (NKJV)

 

Rom 5:18 “Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.”

 

2 Cor 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who know no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  

 

We become righteous when we believe God, obey Him, and do His will just as Jesus did:

 

Mt 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

 

Eph 4:22-24 “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

 

Hos 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”

 

Amen.

 

Click below for a short video about Home for Our Troops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmM9Dks7AZE