“Seek Ye First” is a Scripture song by Karen Lafferty, commonly dated to 1972 and based chiefly on Matthew 6:33. It calls believers to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first, trusting in the Father’s provision. This verse is generally understood to mean that believers must prioritize seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in order to receive the blessings of this world. It serves as a warning to those who seek worldly gains before the Kingdom of God. Such believers are instead encouraged to pursue God first and allow everything else to follow suit. However, when a believer seeks God solely to obtain worldly blessings, they are seeking the world first, not God. Thus, a struggle exists within every believer between the desire to pursue the Kingdom of God and the failure to fully understand Jesus’ teachings in their true context. Let us explore how we can apply Jesus’ instruction to our lives, so the Holy Spirit may reveal both our misconceptions and the correct perspective.
Our Needs And Wants
Over and again, Scripture assures us of God’s provision, which He gives us of His own accord because He knows our needs better than we do. For example, we never even recognized our need for salvation while we were subject to death, the wages of our sin — yet God intended to save us, and He did so. Likewise, though people are taught to fast and pray fervently in order to receive the Holy Spirit, Scripture assures us that the Holy Spirit is given by God freely, without our asking, to safeguard our initial faith in the good news (Ephesians 1:13–14). Also, regarding our needs, Jesus told us that our Father in Heaven knows our needs and provides for them, so there is no need to ask Him at all (Matthew 6:7–8, 32). Yet we are told by preachers to ask unceasingly for what we want, so that our Father in Heaven — moved by our persistent asking — will grant our wants (perhaps to stop us from bothering Him, The Parable of The Persistent Widow).
Through this kind of teaching, people have grown accustomed to asking God for the very things He has withheld from us to lead us toward eternal life. However, we do not wish to continue our journey toward eternity; instead, we remain fixated on this world and its blessings, aligning our thinking with those who do not know God—and, paradoxically, in this very state, we strive hard to introduce God to them. We ask God to heal them miraculously or bless them abundantly so that they might believe in Him. Yet, when this does not work, we assume that healing and blessings are withheld by God until they seek Him first. Consequently, with this new belief, we try to teach them that they should seek God first so that the healing or blessings they primarily desire will also be granted to them.
Context
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
If Jesus has already assured us of His Father’s provision, then what is the point of changing our priority from the world to His Kingdom, only to end up seeking the blessings of this world after all? Jesus spoke of the food given to the birds and the clothing given to the flowers and asked an intriguing question: will not God take care of us far more than these? This, again, prompts believers to think that God intends to bless us more abundantly than the birds and the flowers and that what we should ask Him or prioritize Him for is greater blessings — even imagining that God might clothe us in garments more splendid than those Solomon once wore.
Setting aside our human reasoning, if we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us the mind of God — what He truly gives us — then we will understand the provision Jesus spoke of through this illustration. When we long for clothes more splendid than Solomon’s, Scripture reminds us of two things: the provision of manna for the people of Israel and the remarkable durability of their clothing (Deuteronomy 8:3–4). This provision of God underscores His care for His people and gives them a life free of worry. In the wilderness, as they moved daily in following God, they had no time to cultivate crops for food or acquire new clothing. Yet God did not allow them to worry about their essential needs, and He provided for them without their even asking.
In our spiritual journey, we fail to follow God because we keep stopping to provide for ourselves with knowledge, food, clothing, money, treasures, names, and fame. When we stop following God, thoughts about our future consume our minds, and we invite fear and anxiety into our lives. Then, through misguided teachings about prayer, faith, fasting, and other religious rituals, we strive hard to rid ourselves of these anxieties — yet the harder we try, the deeper we sink into worry and fear about our own lives.
The context of this teaching is that the birds and the flowers never worry about their food or their appearance, yet God gives them food and clothes without their labor or spinning. Through these illustrations, Jesus taught us that if we follow God and love Him with all our heart and strength, He will not leave us to worry but will provide everything we need. The Psalmist understood this kind of provision from God; he declared that when he followed God, who led him through green pastures, he would have no time to think about his wants because God’s provision was sufficient for him (Psalm 23:1–2).
We must not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness merely to acquire what He has already provided. Rather, if we determine to follow God and walk in His statutes, we will find no time left to think about our needs — for before we can even begin to worry, we will realize that our worldly provision has already been given to us, freeing us to seek instead His heavenly provision of peace. The promises of God are never conditional, but always unconditional. Here it may appear conditional, yet God is not offering an exchange or a reward for seeking Him first; He is assuring us of an anxiety-free life. He invites us to experience abundant peace in His presence by prioritizing His Kingdom and His righteousness above the vanity of this world.
May we seek Him to obtain this promised peace, and with that peace, may we abide in Him—even as the whole world is in turmoil.
The Jordan Valley 
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