But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:33-34.

The lesson Jesus is teaching is that our hearts are not to be set on the future in this world, but on the things of eternity. "Therefore...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Why should we seek the kingdom of God first? The Lord wants to see if our priorities are straight. Are we able to put everything on the altar regardless of what we might gain by disobeying? If we can, we are proving we are willing to obey, sacrificing everything, even if it is a matter of putting our "Isaac" on the altar. Are we willing to obey? If we are willing, it shows that our first priority is to seek the kingdom of God.

When we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all the necessities of life will be added unto us. He is telling us not to be anxious about nor to unduly labor for material things. We are to put our priorities straight, seeking the kingdom of God first as our highest priority.

The Greek word which was translated as seek in our text is zeteo which means "to seek, to desire to worship." It is a hungering, desiring, seeking; it is not laboring in a sweating way. It is a matter of a hungering, desiring, worshiping spirit; it is to seek with a desire to worship.

Jesus is not teaching against lawfully labouring for our food, shelter and clothing, but He is dealing with the attitude of the heart, i.e., anxiety! What is our motive? What is the conversation of our heart? It is wrong when our priorities get mixed up, and we seek these things first.

The things of time and sense must not hold first place in our heart; we must first seek His kingdom and His righteousness. In other words, our desire will be to obey the Lord; we will want to enter His kingdom, whatever the price may be in temporal things. We do not put a price on obedience. That is what Adam and Eve did; they disobeyed because they thought they could gain by disobedience.

What comes into question is the authority of God's Word. The Lord will put you and me on trial throughout this life. Will the authority of God hold first place, ahead of any other privilege or any other thing we can gain by disobeying His Word? Where is our top priority? Now we are put on probation. He will bring circumstances into our lives to see if we can, like Abraham, put our "Isaac" on the altar to establish that the authority of His Word comes first in our lives.

The word first in our text comes from the Greek word proton which means "first in order or importance, first or chiefest of all, holding the highest place in all our affections." The Lord is saying the first place in the priority of our affections must be the will of God.

The word first is setting the place of where our treasure is, where our priorities are, and what holds first place in our lives. Jesus said in MAT 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Is our heart centered upon our bank deposit book which speaks of temporal savings, or is it centered upon the Great Book which speaks of eternal savings? The Lord is looking at our heart.