Last Lessons #12 – RIGHTEOUSNESS

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

All of us need “things” in order to live. Jesus confirms this in Matt. 6:32. It is not wrong to seek things we need, and Christians should not criticize non-believers for seeking legitimate necessities. But for believers Jesus says that he will see to it that they receive all the things they need when they make his kingdom and his righteousness their first priority.

What does it mean to “seek the kingdom of God?” What does it mean when we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come?” God’s kingdom comes when God is worshiped as King. God is king today in the hearts of millions of people. But he is not king in the hearts of all people on earth yet. Therefore, we pray that he will become King in all hearts, and that we seek for this to happen by doing what we can to persuade non-believers to believe in Christ and submit to his rule. This should be our primary activity while we are on earth.

What are you doing to introduce others to Christ? At least inviting them to church.

“Seeking first his righteousness” is another story. Of course, we Christians have received Christ’s righteousness when we became believers. We do not need to seek his righteousness. But what we are to seek, before we seek things, is practical righteousness in the way we live. Practical righteousness means that we obey God in all aspects of our behavior, our activities, our relationships, and in these days, in how we are led. We can choose how we behave, for the most part we can choose what we do with our time, we can choose our friends and our church. By God’s grace today we can still choose our leaders, including our political leaders.

In choosing our political leaders we must remember that we are not choosing them as our spiritual leaders, but we do want political leaders who do what is right for the people. If possible, we choose Christians above non-Christians. But even Christians will not be perfect. However, while they are in office, they must want to do what is right for the people and what is right in their personal lives. Their policies must be right for all people. They stand for people of all races and colors. They stand for the unborn and the elderly. They stand for the rich and the poor. They stand for the Constitution, and they stand for truth. We must not choose proven liars to lead us. All people are sinners, but for leaders, lying is the most unacceptable of sins.

As we pray that God will lead us to choose the leaders who seek that which is most righteous, then we have the promise that “all things will be added to us” including a prosperous economy, law and order, safety, and peace.

I pray that we will choose the right leaders. Are you praying for the same?