Seek...

Matthew 6:33 says "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Today God is really pressing on my heart the word "seek". He is not so much even telling me to seek more of Him...but He is pressing it on me to talk about what and why we seek the things we do.
Matthew 6 says to "seek first the kingdom of God". This means that every decision we make, each and every day of our life, should be made based on pleasing God FIRST. I know that some people will read that and think it sounds a bit extreme, but I would have to counter that with the question...Does it? If I know and recognize that everything I have, everything I am, is because of God's blessings, then how does seeking Him first seems extreme? The thing that I have found when it comes to seeking God's will, is that it will truly cause me to listen for Him more. When you want to know what He wants for you, you listen. When you just go through your day making your own decisions you will find that you "unconsciously" aren't even listening for Him at all. And listening for Him is far more important than talking to Him or telling Him what we need. He has things to show you...things to tell you, but it takes the "seeking" part from you.
Think about the decisions you are making...or even the ones you are praying about. Get honest with yourself and ask the tough questions like "do I benefit from this the most?". Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we will look for all the reasons God would want us to do something because it really is something that we want or we are going to benefit from. But I would challenge you with this thought.....sometimes the things He wants us to do the most do not benefit us. They may in the long run in ways we cannot even see, but for the most part, things God calls us to do are selfless acts that might even benefit someone or something else. But again, it take honest seeking to allow God to get that real with you. Don't rob yourself from a blessing that God has in store for you by making decisions without seeking Him.
And let me close with this thought...and trust me this may not and easy thing to do. Today, get real with God and ask Him to reveal to you the decisions that you have made without Him or His blessing. And if He shows you things, be ready and humble enough to undo, redo, step out of, change or start over whatever it is He presses on your heart. I recently had to do something like that and even though it was very difficult, it drew me close to him and showed me a level of obedience with Him that I didn't even know existed in me. But it also made me realize that the difficulty really came from the fact that I didn't truly seek Him before I made that decision. Lesson learned....
God, Thank You for guiding us. Thank You for instructing us. Thank You for directing and correcting us. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to help us make decisions. Help us God to slow down and seek You before we step into anything. May we become so disciplined, that being obedient is far more important than being selfish. Teach us to seek.....and then let us see the benefits of it on our lives. In Jesus name, Amen