May 2025 From the Desk of Dave McLean

Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God

Matt 6:30-34  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  Therefore take no thought [BE ANXIOUS], saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  [I BELIEVE THAT!] 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.” [BRACKET, BOLD ADDED]

I love this passage.  It took me years to resonate with this: I’m slow.  I used to spend a lot of time studying and meditating on this passage, because I couldn’t relate to it.  The Lord asked me to quit building and serve others without compensation, but I thought, “I still have to pay my bills, how do I do that?”  My budget became what any business person would call “upside down” or “under water”.  I lived in fear for the better part of a year.  Scripture tells us to take no thought or anxiety, but that’s all I had!  I felt more comfortable with seeking first the kingdom of God than all these things shall be added unto you.  The Lord wanted to build my faith and He did, but it wasn’t overnight.  Over many months and years, the Lord began to bring this passage to life for me.

 Seeking the Lord first, is just exactly that, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in all we do.  This does not mean that we don’t engage in various endeavors, it just means that the Lord and His kingdom are first, center in our thoughts as we do our endeavors.  Proverbs 8:17 says, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”  I believe seeking Him early applies to all ways we may seek Him early.  Early in our lives, early in our day, early in our struggle, early in our decision making, or early in our endeavors. 

 Faith in the Lord is a contrast in pursuits. If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then He will fill us with His truth and love and we will be filled with Him in all we do or encounter.  If we seek our desires first, we tend to be consumed by either them or our anxieties and there is little or no place for God in our lives.  Proverbs 27:20 says, “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”  The man who dwells in Christ is filled with His truth and love and they guide him through life and life’s struggles, helping him to love and help others (Matt. 5:6).  The man who is never satisfied is consumed by his desires and has little room for God’s desires or the needs of others.  This contrast of pursuits is literally a question of whether you will be filled or consumed.

 A ship doesn’t turn on a dime, and we will have tests and trials, but as we begin to align our lives with His Word, things will change.  Tests and trials are opportunities to exercise and prove our faith, and as we listen and embrace God’s way, we experience His power!  Over years of counseling others, I’ve come to see that almost all our anxiety is self-induced from being outside of God’s will, either in our actions or thinking.  Unfortunately, when that happens, our anxiety becomes the first consumption of our thoughts and time, and our fear fills the space that God and faith should be filling.  How sad- not only do our desires rob us of a relationship with our Creator, but then our anxiety comes in, consuming the hope and beauty we might otherwise experience with the Lord in our lives.  You can see why seeking Him first is so important: what we seek first sets the stage for the balance of our lives!

 Years ago our founder, Peggy Christensen, asked me to counsel a couple that had taken on so much consumer debt of reckless spending, it was dragging them under.  After meeting with them, I was depressed for three days over their circumstances, and it wasn’t even my problem!  I could only imagine the stress this couple was living under.  How can you not be anxious when you’ve created such a problem?  This not only dampens our relationship with the Lord, but also skews our view of God.  We cannot blame God for our foolishness.

             Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness also changes what we seek, and how we obtain it.  Over the years, the Lord changes our desires.  Almost without exception, it is those who waste money who lack in their necessities.  It is important to develop self-control in what we desire, seeking only that which we need or can comfortably afford.  It is easier to obtain our necessities if we are not wasting money on our desires.  In addition, if we are seeking the Lord first, He will be guiding our decisions into wisdom and away from poor spending.

 Not only will practicing these truths serve us well, but as we pour ourselves into seeking the Lord first, He takes great pleasure in adding unto us the things that the Gentiles seek.  I could share testimony after testimony of how the Lord “added unto” my family after we shut down our building business and prioritized investing in His kingdom and righteousness.  I wouldn’t trade His shift in focus on my life for anything the world has to offer!  Investing in eternal goals and in the lives and hearts of people is a gratifying and beautiful thing.  And as we grow in our seeking of Him, we shed the fear and anxiety that, at one time, filled our lives because we were seeking the wrong things.

 The Lord’s will is different for each of us- we must seek out His specific desires in our own lives.  But determining His will for our own lives is something we should invest time in, alone with the Lord.  There is no cookie cutter formula that circumvents seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and I do not know where He will lead you.  I do know how He will lead you, and that will be into His beautiful will and perfect love.  As my wife, Holly, and I surrendered our vision and construction company, the Lord not only guided us away from our worldly pursuits, He guided us away from the anxiety that accompanied it.  There is peace in His will and kingdom pursuits, there is peace in His righteousness.  And there is joy as the Lord adds “unto us” that which we have surrendered unto Him.

 I could share hundreds of testimonies of miraculous things the Lord has done as we changed the direction of our seeking and trusted the Lord to “add unto us” that which He thought was best.  When I “dropped my nets” and followed Him, there were two dreams that I surrendered that I had dearly wanted, but thought I would not see since my income was taking a serious drop.  I was at peace with surrendering those dreams as I was convinced in my direction in following the Lord. 

The first was my desire to visit Israel and walk where Jesus walked.  Two years later I received a call from my co-deacon of missions at our church, a strong missions oriented church.  One of our missionaries was headed to Egypt to head up a new mission’s project there, and needed help on his visit.  I was asked if I could make the expenses-paid trip to help out.  I was quite familiar with how close Israel was to Egypt, and was thrilled to go.  For a small investment, I was able to extend our trip to Israel and visit the sites that were most important to me.  What a gift from the Lord, that I had previously surrendered. 

The second dream was to live on acreage.  When the Lord moved our family to Montana in 2005, the price of land was a fraction of the cost as compared to Flagstaff, Arizona, from where we were moving.  So I invested in land, did a minor subdivision and after the sale of our lots, the balance of our land was paid for by the profit.  My sons and I built rentals on our land that pay our bills and free us up to serve at A Ray of Hope and elsewhere. 

I marvel at His wisdom and mercies.  Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not only honors the Lord, but it guides us in setting the direction of our lives in a blessed trajectory.  What we seek first establishes the rest of what we will seek, and seeking the Lord first is our only hope of living a filled life.  When I was younger, I was trying to climb the ladder to success, but thankfully the Lord was gracious to show me that I had it leaning up against the wrong building.  So I scurried down and moved my ladder.  Make seeking the Lord a priority and He will prioritize you!  We have one life- use it wisely!                           Amen?  Amen!