Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today seek understanding of the Kingdom of God

Today’s scripture, Matthew 6:33
(NLT), Jesus said…
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Consider…
I am blessed to participate in AWANA, which stands for Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15), at my church. AWANA’s stated goal is to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ, and train them to serve Him. It’s prayer is that all children and youth throughout the world will come to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

The theme verse for AWANA this year is Matthew 6:33. This also happens to be the theme verse for my marriage and me personally.

Yesterday I sat and contemplated what does it mean to seek the Kingdom of God? What is the Kingdom of God?

Well, I thought, who better to explain the Kingdom of God than Jesus , the King Himself. So I looked for His descriptions.

First I found Luke 13:18‭-‬19 (NLT) which says…
Then Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches.”

After reading this I thought 🤷🏾‍♂️. So I asked Dana, who smiled big and said it’s about Jesus who is the seed, starting with a small following that has grown into His universal church with multitudes of believers. Her interpretation was great, but my understanding was still 🤷🏾‍♂️.

So I read further and in Luke 13:21 (ERV) Jesus said…
“It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

Again I thought 🤷🏾‍♂️. So I looked at the Matthew Henry’s Commentary in the Biblehub app, which Dana turned me onto, that a co-worker turned her onto. There I found this…
13:18-22 Here is the progress of the gospel foretold in two parables, as in Mt 13. The kingdom of the Messiah is the kingdom of God. May grace grow in our hearts; may our faith and love grow exceedingly, so as to give undoubted evidence of their reality. May the example of God’s saints be blessed to those among whom they live; and may his grace flow from heart to heart, until the little one becomes a thousand

That commentary, coupled with Dana’s interpretation, got me closer to understanding, but something was still missing for me. So I asked the best interpreter of God’s word, the Holy Spirit, for wisdom. He directed me to Ephesians 3:14‭-‬19 (ERV)…
So I bow in prayer before the Father. Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

That brought it altogether for me. The Kingdom of God is the seed of His love, which is Jesus Christ , planted in the hearts of us who believe. He wants us to spread that love to everyone we encounter so that they too can come to know the love of God for themselves.

Right after I hit the period above, the Holy Spirit confirmed my understanding by leading me to 1 John 4:7‭-‬12 (NLT)…
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

The Holy Spirit then expanded my understanding of God’s Kingdom to realize it’s His love fully actualized. He succinctly made it plain with 1 John 4:19 (NLT), which emphasizes,
“We love each other because He loved us first.”

God’s Kingdom is the knowing and showing of His love! 💝

Applying that understanding to today’s verse yields…

Seek knowing and showing God’s Love above all else…

The more of God’s love that we know and show, the more His Kingdom will grow.

Today’s song is…
Love Like Jesus
https://youtu.be/a4PC9vtsVaA?si=dzAXrdAxYY_9ez0u

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)