But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Jesus spoke these words to his disciples during a teaching about worry and material needs. Just before this verse, he pointed to how God feeds ravens and clothes wildflowers — creatures that do not plan or worry — as evidence that God cares for what he creates. He then tells his followers not to obsessively pursue food, clothing, and security the way the people around them do. 'His kingdom' refers to living under God's rule and priorities — caring about what God cares about, pursuing what God values. The promise that 'these things will be given to you as well' means that when you stop making material provision the central pursuit of your life, God takes responsibility for meeting your actual needs. It is a radical reordering of what comes first.
God, I confess I spend more energy managing my fears about tomorrow than I do seeking you today. Shift my center of gravity. Help me trust that you know what I need — and that chasing your kingdom will not leave me empty-handed. Amen.
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from spending your life securing things you are terrified to lose. The right salary, the savings buffer, the career path that keeps options open. None of that is wrong — but Jesus noticed something: when the securing becomes the seeking, you end up chasing a horizon that keeps moving. The disciples he was talking to had left fishing boats and tax tables. They had real, legitimate worries about how they would eat. What Jesus offers here is not naivety — he is not saying stop working or stop planning. He is describing a different center of gravity. Think about a day when you were genuinely caught up in something that mattered — serving someone, being fully present with a person you love, working on something larger than yourself. Did you spend that day paralyzed by your grocery list? Probably not. That shift is not a trick. It is a kind of freedom. What would it actually look like for you to try this — to let the kingdom be first today, and see if the other things follow?
What do you think Jesus meant concretely by 'his kingdom' — what does seeking it actually look like in a normal week, not just in church?
What is the thing you most frequently find yourself seeking or securing, and how does it compete with kingdom priorities in your daily decisions?
This promise sounds almost too simple — seek God's kingdom and your needs get met. Where does this feel genuinely hard to believe, and what is underneath that struggle?
How does anxiety about material things affect the way you treat the people closest to you — your family, coworkers, or people with far less than you?
What is one concrete decision you face this week that you could orient around kingdom values rather than around securing your own comfort or future?
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
John 6:27
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Hebrews 13:5
For bodily exercise profiteth little : but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 4:8
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Matthew 6:25
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psalms 84:11
But [strive for and actively] seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
AMP
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
ESV
'But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
NASB
But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
NIV
But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
NKJV
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.
NLT
Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
MSG