How Do I Seek First the Kingdom? | Living Now in Light of Later

by Alan Smith

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Cor 15:58

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
2 Cor 5:4-5

I used to play the saxophone. I wasn’t great, but I was good and had potential. One year I set the goal to make the All Region Band. This required performing a very difficult piece of music in front of a panel of judges. Preparation for this task involved committing hours of time that would normally be allocated for play to a fairly grueling process of practice. Not being a naturally disciplined child, it might not surprise you to hear that some doubted I would in fact follow through. But I did. Why? I had captured a vision of a future reality, and I was motivated in the present to live in light of that reality.

1 Corinthians 15 is about the future moment when Christ returns; we will rise bodily from the dead to meet Him—transformed and incorruptible. In verse 58, Paul tells us that we should live in the present “ … steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Part of what it means to seek first the kingdom of God in my life involves capturing a vision for that which is yet to come. I seek first the kingdom by living within the present in light of a future reality.

Our access to this future reality of resurrection and new creation is not simply conceptual or theological. By the Spirit, we have been given access in the present to a reality in the future. The Spirit has been given to us as a guarantee, a down-payment, in the present, toward that future reality. By the Spirit, I am called to live within my present context as an heir of that future reality.

1. The New Testament firmly anchors our future home in terms of bodily resurrection and new creation. When you think of your future in Christ, is your hope similarly placed? Why or why not?

2. When Jesus returns there will be an end to sickness, sorrow, pain and suffering (see Rev 21). In what ways does the Holy Spirit work presently within believers to bring that future reality into the present?

3. Through what relationships might the Holy Spirit want to use you this week as a conduit of new creation power?

How Do I Seek First the Kingdom? | Prioritizing His Word

by Alan Smith

But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
John 6:68

At age 12, on a daylong horseback ride with a friend, I found myself dehydrated and three hours away from any drinkable water. Those three hours were some of the longest of my life. With each step, all I could think about was water. Nothing else mattered. I learned something very important that day: There’s nothing like the perception of an acute need to focus priorities. When we become aware of that which we desperately need, all other objects of our desire take a back seat.

In this passage from John 6, many of Jesus’ followers had departed. Things had become difficult; following Jesus had become too costly. They felt their desire for comfort, convenience, social acceptance and tradition more urgently than their need for the life that comes only from His word. Jesus asked His disciples if they were going to leave too and Peter replied as quoted above. In contrast to the multitude, somehow Peter and the rest of Jesus’ closest group of followers had become aware of their desperate need for life. All other considerations faded as they committed to the pursuit of this one thing—the words of eternal life.

I have experienced seasons when God’s Word has taken a backseat to competing priorities in my life. I’m sure you can relate. But I have discovered that God’s grace tends to work through the circumstances of my life to bring me back to the place where I am aware of my desperate need for His Word. Part of what it means to seek first the kingdom of God is to prioritize His Word in our lives—not because we feel like we have to fulfill a religious obligation, but because we have discovered our desperate need for His words of life.

1. What are some of the seemingly urgent things that tend to crowd out your time in God’s Word?

2. How does reading the Bible to fulfill a religious obligation contrast with reading the Bible to receive words of life?

3. If you sense that God’s grace is working through your current life circumstances to remind you of your need for His Word, what steps can you take today to respond?