First the Kingdom
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” — Deuteronomy 30:19-20
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33
Like a recurring dream, there is one choice in life that is presented to us over and over again. You have probably made this choice at least once today. You made a choice when you woke up and decided whether to thank God for the day or simply begin your routine. It came up again when there was an opportunity to help a coworker or a schoolmate, but it was out of your way. That recurring choice is the decision to put God first or to please ourselves, but it’s a false dichotomy: Jesus said (in Matthew 6:33) that if we put God first, the things that are beneficial to us will fall into place. He actually said they would be “added unto” us. We don’t have to chase after them, because God is the one who adds to our lives — not us. When we chase after God, we’ll find that He takes care of the things we would have been chasing anyway.
We all have to make this choice repeatedly. Maybe this time it’s a job or a relationship. Maybe you’re dealing with academic decisions or family issues. Or maybe your choice is too personal for me to enumerate. But regardless of the specific situation, the principle of putting God first holds firm.
There’s a good example of working from principles in the field of aviation. If you were to read an airplane manual or an instruction book for flying a plane, without actually flying one, you might be left with the impression that the important part of flying is the details. There’s the trim, the flaps, the fuel mixture, calibrating the instruments, adjusting the propeller angle… there are a lot of parameters that will affect your flight. But an instructor will leave out those details while you’re learning and will have you focus on a few simple principles. Pull back to pitch up and push forward to pitch down. Left and right tilt the plane in that direction. Point the nose toward wherever it is you want to go. Many forces can work on the craft to affect the outcome, but as long as you continue to follow those principles it will work itself out.
So it is with life. There are billions of unique situations — everyone on earth is dealing with life from a slightly different perspective. But without knowing anything specific, we could still say with confidence that the most important decision is to put God first. Our challenge today? Seek first the Kingdom.
You’re absolutely right; I don’t think there is a more important or more basic decision to be made.
The aviation analogy was great.
Splendid and simplistic.
It IS that easy.
Thanks for the reminder