Pursuing God

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

─Jesus, Matthew 6:33

 

“Believing, then, is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to ‘behold the Lamb of God,’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.”

─A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

 

‘Seek’ in Matthew 6:33 is the Greek word, zeteo. It means to strive or desire; it also means to seek a thing or to crave.  The sense of the word and its usage in the verse is not a simple seeking for my car keys or wallet.  Not to get all technical, but ‘seek’ is a present-active-imperative which means it can be interpreted to be an ongoing command. In essence, Jesus is saying, “Continually seek after, crave, and desire the kingdom of God and His righteous.” So unlike our car keys, that when we find them our seeking ends, Jesus is saying that seeking God is a life-long pursuit.  After all, the Creator of the Universe has no beginning and no end, so we could never contain God like we can contain our car keys. As we begin to grasp one aspect of God, a myriad of others begin flooding our soul, thus, continuously giving us small doses of the eternal nature of the living God.

 Yet striving after the things of God is itself a key to deepening our relationship with Him. 

But is Matthew 6:33 a prosperity doctrine? Is He saying that as we pursue God we’ll get rich, get the big house, the big car, and the exotic vacations?  I don’t think so. While these things may not be inherently bad, Jesus is looking at the deeper things of life, He’s looking at the spiritual things.

 First of all, Jesus actually states that Solomon, the richest man ever up to that point, wasn’t even as arrayed as the lily of the field. That’s quite a statement. Solomon had everything there was to have, whether moral or immoral. A lily by contrast, is a simple, but beautiful flower. So Solomon vs. the lily could also be stated as mass materialism vs. simplicity.  Jesus is speaking to the need of mankind, not the greed of mankind. What’s more, I think He’s also speaking to spiritual riches, not just material riches. Material riches rot, fade, break, and wind up in landfills or wills. Spiritual riches lead to eternal rewards in Heaven. 

The big question, of course, is how do we pursue God and His Kindgom?  Is there a specific devotional or discipleship plan we should follow? While there are several of these types of plans available, I think the better place to start is to observe the Master Himself. Jesus lived a life of pursuing God, of doing God’s will at all times; therefore, He is the logical example to follow.

One of Jesus’ primary actions was prayer. The Gospels are filled with examples of Jesus seeking solitude early in the morning to pray to His Heavenly Father. In fact, often one of the first things a person thinks about when they think of Jesus is prayer.

Another key aspect of Jesus’ life was His knowledge and grasp of Scripture. He didn’t just know Scripture as a thing to memorize or a box to check on a daily to-do list, He ate, digested, and lived what the Holy Writ taught. He came to the Scripture with no personal agenda. Or as Chris Webb states, He read with “empty hands.”

“To read with empty hands means setting aside our agenda and developing an interior silence…Without this silence, it is much harder for us to hear the living voice of God speaking through that Word” (Chris Webb, The Fire of the Word: Meeting God on Holy Ground, Chapter 6).

So to truly establish a pursuit of God in our lives, we must have a genuine prayer life; not rote prayers, but honest, heart-felt prayers in an attitude of full attention on God and the things of the Spirit. Next, we must become comfortable and familiar with Scripture; intentionally laying aside our agenda and seeking God’s heart and voice through His written Word.

Applying these two keys in our lives will deepen our identity in Christ and strengthen our faith.

My next blog will look at even more keys for deepening our pursuit, and therefore, the presence of God in our lives.