Seek First the Kingdom: Jesus on Trading Worry for Trust

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus looked at people anxious about food, drink, and clothes and gave them one priority to put above all the others: seek God's kingdom first. Here is one fact, His words, a look at how Jews of His day sang about God as King, and one person's account of meeting Jesus.

One simple fact

Matthew 6:33 closes a short teaching in which Jesus tells His listeners three times not to worry (Matthew 6:25, 6:31, and 6:34). He points to the birds of the air, which God feeds, and to the wild flowers of the field, which God clothes. Luke records the same teaching in Luke 12:22-31, where it ends with "seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

Read it yourself: Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) and Luke 12:22-31 (NIV).

Jesus' words

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

— Jesus, Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

Jesus does not say food and clothing don't matter. He says the Father already knows we need them (Matthew 6:32), so the first thing to chase is His rule and His right ways. Everything else falls into its proper place behind that. See the saying on its own page: Seek first the kingdom.

A historical reference: songs to God the King

When Jesus spoke of God's kingdom, His hearers already had a rich language for God's kingship. One example survives among the Dead Sea Scrolls: the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, also called the Angelic Liturgy. It is a set of thirteen songs, one for each of the first thirteen Sabbaths of the year, describing angels praising God in a heavenly temple. Eight copies were found in Qumran Cave 4 (4Q400-407), one in Cave 11, and one at the fortress of Masada, according to the Library of Congress "Scrolls from the Dead Sea" exhibition. The exhibited copy, 4Q403, was copied in the mid-first century B.C.E.

The song for the seventh Sabbath calls God "the King of glory" and "King of kings of all the eternal councils" (exhibition English translation of 4Q403). Hebrew University scholar Noam Mizrahi describes how the work leads readers step by step into the inner sanctum, where God's throne stands (Mizrahi, "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice"). The Masada fragment can be viewed in the Israel Antiquities Authority's Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

Those songs pictured God's kingship mostly in heaven, sung by angels. Jesus told ordinary, worried people on a hillside that they could seek that same kingdom first, today, and trust the King with tomorrow.

A first-person account: "Jesus was carrying me"

A woman identified as Amber F shared an experience with the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), which classifies it as a probable NDE. She described a car accident on her prom night around 1995. Years later, in a state between waking and sleeping, she said she found herself back in that field with Jesus. In her words:

"I looked up and realized that I was carrying my own body through the field. I became emotional and asked Jesus why I was carrying myself. I felt unworthy of receiving help or love. Jesus responded, 'We can only show you what you are willing to see. Look again.' When I looked again, I saw that Jesus was carrying me. An overwhelming feeling of love washed over me."

— Amber F, NDERF Probable NDE 33580

Her account is presented here as she reported it. It echoes the heart of Matthew 6: we often think we are carrying everything ourselves, while the Father is already caring for us.

Today

Name one worry you are carrying into this week. Hand it to God in a short prayer, then ask what seeking His kingdom first would look like in the next hour: a kind word, an honest choice, a moment of prayer. Let tomorrow worry about itself.