Matthew 6 & 7 at a glance

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Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...but store up treasures in heaven..for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also...no one can serve two masters...You cannot serve both God & money...Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear...for the pagans run after all these things & your heavenly Father knows you need them...BUT seek first his kingdom & his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.


When we do things His way, considering things closest to His heart we will not only have what we want and need; we will have the things closest to His heart foremost and all we need will be given in addition to His kingdom and His righteousness...

...as if additions could be made to that.

I see several important patterns here:

Spiritual first. Physical second.

When we wait on the physical and do what He asks, we receive the physical as well as another reward in full.

Because we cannot serve two masters, when we serve money we are not able to serve God. But when we serve God, money isn't an issue.

Since you can't serve God and money, Jesus says to just not worry about the physical. If you have to choose a god, choose the real, true, living God.

Pagans run after what will satisfy for now and worry about themselves but as a Christ follower this isn't who you are! When you run after Christ instead, God will make sure your needs are met but you will also be in right standing with Him.

The Spiritual and the Physical needs-the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, Jesus gave us the recipe to keep them together.

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33
I know from personal experience worrying is easier than seeking.

Let me say that again. We thing worrying is easier than seeking. So we worry. We worry about finances. We worry about finding a job. We worry about what we do not have that we think we need or legitimately need. We worry about relationships that are falling apart, are being formed, or we worry one will never form. But is that really easier?

We become a slave to money or to worry itself sometimes. This is troubling. After all, "No one can serve to masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24a

Is serving worry really easier? Is serving money and running after it (especially in the absence of it) really easier?

What does seeking entail?

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6: 34

.:We are not to judge others (Matthew 7:1)

.:We are to take care of our own "planks" before we remove specks. (Matthew 7:5)

.:We are not to throw sacred things around, but honor them. We are not to throw our pearls before pigs so to speak. (Matthew 7: 6)

.:We are to ask because it is they who ask who will receive. (Matthew 7:7)

.:We are to seek because everyone who seeks, finds what they are looking for. (Matthew 7:7)

.:We are to knock in our seeking because when we do, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7)

.:We are to trust that God has good things to give us. (Matthew 7:9-12)

.:We are to choose the narrow way (which is seeking Life...see above points). (Matthew 7:13-14)

.:We are to bear good fruit. Be what we seem. Make right choices. A fig won't be found on a peach tree! Likewise, dark choices won't come from a follower of the Way. (Matthew 7:16-17)

.:We are not to only claim to do things for God. We are to do His will by seeking Him. That is the only way. (Matthew 7: 21-24)


It is interesting to note that when we seek after His kingdom and His righteousness, there is a fulfillment in His pleasure as we become clean from the inside out. This is a true righteousness-truly becoming like Him. However, when we choose to worry, there is an endless pit of self destruction and of dispair.

Choose the sunshine. Choose life. Choose to seek. Seek His righteousness and His kingdom. After all, we are promised that we will receive that first and we will be warm and well fed to boot.