Cast Your Care: Seeking The Kingdom Of God

The Purpose Of This Series:

God spoke a humbling message to me last year when I went through a season of questioning why he had yet to answer prayers that I was still waiting on him to fulfill. In my frustration, I asked God what the hold up was for and if there was something that I needed to do. I felt in my spirit loud and clear, “You need to have more faith, and believe in what I can do”. I didn’t understand because I did believe in God. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t go to him for fulfillment in my prayers at all. What he revealed was that while I believed, I wasn’t fully confident because I lacked a strong understanding of who he was. I needed to know who he was to fully stand on his power and to learn to have unwavering faith in him. I began to study the Bible, specifically focusing on the areas of faith. I realized that I was praying yet lacked confidence that the same God that worked miracles to make the sun stand still had the same power to fulfill my prayers to. While studying the Bible, I noticed that for the last few years, many of the verses that I saved and studied were centered around myself, what I needed at the time or was going through.

I began to shift my “me focused” prayers to spending time learning who God and Jesus were. This led to my not only removing a focus on myself, but developing stronger faith, why God was so good, worthy to be served, and trusting his plan and will over my own.  My prayers and focus changed when I took my attention off myself and placed it on Christ.

 My lack of a full understanding of Gods power was why my faith at times was so weak. It wasn’t that my prayers were too big, it was that I didn’t truly believe in how big the God I served was.  I had to spend time focusing not in how to believe in my specific prayers, but in the God that I was praying to.  While I thought I needed to learn how to develop in the area of faith, it turned out I needed to put my focus on the one that I had faith in. I believed in God but needed to spend time creating a foundation that stood on why I had faith in him. That led me to creating this series that I’m so excited to share.

This series focuses on creating a foundation that spends time learning who God is, Jesus as an intercessor, why the enemy attacks us with thoughts of worry and fear, and how following in Gods commands are his expectation in living a life that puts him first through Matthew 6:33 ("But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well").  

My hope in this series is to share what I studied that helped change and shift my prayers. There were things I was praying for that I realized were not aligned to who I was in Christ, his will for my life, or kingdom minded at all. I learned that the enemy will test my faith and provide alternatives for me to take, making it important to also know what is of God and what is not.  

The first portion of this series focuses on Matthew 6:33, which taught me to seek first the kingdom of God. After spending time understanding exactly what the kingdom of God was, and why God wants us to put the kingdom first, I learned how to shift my thoughts and prayers towards God first.

Matthew 6:33 NIV says ”But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. The problem is that we focus too much on “all else”.  Our focus should center on the kingdom of God first, followed by “his righteousness”.

Verses 19-21 explains why we should put the kingdom of God first:

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Verse 21 says that where our treasure is, our heart is. So if our hearts remain on “all else”, the kingdom of God is no longer first in our hearts.  

Jeremiah 17:9 NIV says that "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

If your heart is focused on “all else”,  our focus will be as well. God defines all else in Matthew 6:25 as “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”

Verse 30 confirms that these things should be secondary to God, as he already knows all of our needs! Focusing on the kingdom of God over “all else” will not leave us lacking anything, as God knows all of our needs. How comforting is it to know “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30 NIV).

Focusing on the kingdom doesn’t remove our thoughts or concern for our daily needs, but instead commands that we trust he will take care of us as we put him first above all things.  

Not only does God command that we focus on “all else”, he commands us to live righteously.  Righteous is defined as being morally right, free from guilt or sin.  We are under grace and mercy (Romans 9:18 NIV), but God desires that we are like David, who was chasing after his heart (1 Samuel 13:14 NIV).  God testified concerning David that “he will do everything I want him to do”. Wow! I wonder what God would testify if it came to speaking about me. That she loves me, but still struggles with truly submitting to and following me? I want God to speak of me the way he spoke of David, but that would mean having to remove me and put the kingdom of God first.  Not only that, but I would have to also live my life righteously, doing everything God wanted me to do.

How do we “cast our cares” to put our full focus on Christ?  By putting our cares aside, replacing them with a kingdom first focus.  

The “kingdom” of God is found in John 18:36, Romans 14:17, Daniel 2:44, and Psalm 103:19. Jesus is our everlasting example of living on earth righteously.  He guides in how to live like him, to be “Christlike”, in a way that pleases and honors God. We find we are called to this in 1 John 2:6, Ephesians 5:1-2, Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 2:10 and how to walk like Christ in biblical books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.