Seek first [your heavenly Father’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
- from Matthew 6:33

What would happen if we all committed to seek God’s kingdom first in 2017? Let’s look at three categories and what seeking God’s kingdom first might mean for these areas of our lives.

Relationships | Seeking God’s kingdom first in our relationships will mean seeking reconciliation wherever reconciliation is possible.

We will be quick to do the hard work of forgiving those who have sinned against us. We will do the even harder work of seeking forgiveness when we’ve wronged someone. We’ll reach out to people who are different from us. And we’ll get serious about spending time with God: we’ll carve out time to pray and read the Bible, we’ll seek meaningful Christian community, we’ll make worship a priority.

Seeking God’s kingdom isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

Health | Seeking God’s kingdom first in our health means embracing God’s design for our bodies.

God’s kingdom speaks honestly about him and about us. He made us and gave us limits. We have to sleep. We have to rest. We have to choose our food and drink wisely. We have to exercise and move around. We have to go to the doctor and brush our teeth and bathe occasionally. He’s given us bodies with remarkable potential and fragility.

Seeking God’s kingdom will always have an effect on our health. This doesn’t mean that we’ll be supermodels or even in good health, but submitting to his Lordship plays out in physical space.

Money | Seeking God’s kingdom first has radical implications for our wallets.

We learn to be content with less so that we can be more generous. We will give to the church, sure, yet the kingdom of God is bigger than one local church and God will give us opportunities to be generous beyond our immediate community. We’ll find ways to bless our near and far neighbors. And we’ll experience financial peace.

Seeking God’s kingdom first in the arena of our finances gives us opportunities to fully trust God with our well-being. And he is capable of taking care of us.