Seek first
The Sermon on the Mount
In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the anxiety that runs underneath most of our days — what we will eat, what we will wear, how we will provide, whether we will be all right. He points to the birds, who store up nothing and are fed, and to the lilies, who do not labor and are clothed better than Solomon.
Then he reorders everything with a single command. Most people seek first their own security and hope to fit God in around it. Jesus reverses the priority: seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things — the food, the clothing, the provision you are anxious about — will be added to you.
It is a promise and a surrender at once. The kingdom goes first; the rest follows. Put the second things second, he says, and you will get the first thing and the second things too; put the second things first, and in the end you lose them both.
“Seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.”
— Jesus, on the mountain — Matthew 6:33 (WEB)
Put the second things second — seek first the kingdom, and trust the Father to add the rest.
“If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.”
Anxiety is usually a symptom of a reversed order: we have made security, provision, or approval ultimate, and second things crush us when we ask them to be first. The interior work is to dethrone the anxious priorities and seek God's kingdom first in practice, learning to trust the Father with the very things you are tempted to seize.
Name the second thing you are most anxious about. This week, deliberately put the kingdom first in some concrete way each morning — prayer, generosity, obedience — before you tend to that worry, and watch what shifts.
Anxiety thrives on a reversed order, keeping the second things in first place and magnifying every fear about provision until God becomes an afterthought you hope to squeeze in. Those second things were never built to bear the weight of being ultimate. Seeking first the kingdom sets the whole anxious pile back where it belongs.
Most of our anxiety is a symptom of a reversed order — we have made the second things first, and second things make crushing gods. They were never designed to bear the weight of being ultimate. To seek first the kingdom is to set the whole anxious pile down in its proper place and trust the Father to add what we need.
This is not a technique for getting the second things; it is a reordering of love. What would your week actually look like — your calendar, your worry, your money — if God's kingdom were genuinely first, and everything else were trusted to be added?
- What second thing have I quietly made first?
- Is my anxiety a symptom of a reversed order of loves?
- What would my week look like if the kingdom were genuinely first?
Father, I have made second things first and grown anxious. I seek first your kingdom; I trust you to add the rest. Amen.