Not Sure What to Do? How to Seek God In Your Christian Walk

Understanding how to seek God will help you be sure that your Christian life is focused on the right thing.

Someone recently asked me what it means to seek or put God first in their life. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is where we’re going to camp out and talk about today. 

This verse is from a long passage in scripture in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, Jesus is teaching the crowd and his followers what it means to live a Christian life then and of course for you today.

He is confronting culture and traditions and things that don’t exactly line up with the way that God wants you to live your life. He’s teaching, for this whole section of scripture, what the Christian life should be and what it should look like. 

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How to Seek God: What it Means to Seek

One of these things that he says is Seek first the kingdom of heaven. I get this question a lot. Ladies wondering what that verse means.  In this verse, you see this command to seek. Which means really searching and looking, but not just scanning the room and not seeing it. It speaks to intention, purpose, and a strong desire.

When you seek, you want to purpose in your heart to find this thing. What is it that you’re seeking for? What is your goal or focus? It’s the kingdom of heaven and righteousness. It’s not earthly things like vanity, money, or fame. It’s not your fleshly desires and things.

The verse concludes by saying when you seek first the things of God that all these things come too. What things? All the things that you might be worried about:  where are you going to live, what are you going to eat or wear, and what’s going to happen to you.

All of that stuff gets taken care of because your focus is on the things of God. 

How to Seek God: Make God a Priority

The community member who asked the question gave me an example of what she thought seeking God should look like: spending the first part of the day with God. I hear that a lot, and I used to think that first meant the first thing that I do every single day. That’s not exactly what it means because there are seasons where that might not be possible. 

Maybe you have small kids, an illness in your family, a weird work shift, or whatever is going on in your life that you cannot have the first thing that you do every morning be sitting down with your Bible to talk to God. That’s okay.

I don’t see anywhere in scripture where the command is the second you open your eyes you need to be spending time with God. We see God tell us that we need to be in the word, pray, spend time with him, and grow in our faith. But he does not say what time of day it needs to be done.

When you are trying to seek God first you don’t have to be so literal.

You want to be sure that you are making time with God a top priority in your life. It doesn’t mean that you have to do it first thing in the morning. You need to figure out what works for you. And when you decide what your time with God will look like protect it.

How to Seek God: Ask God First

The second thing that putting God first in your life can look like is going to God first for decisions, especially when you’re in hard times. When you have to make an important decision is prayer the first step in that process or do you think it through yourself, talk to your friend, and then talk to somebody else? 

Does the decision then blow up in your face before you remember that you probably should have asked God what he wanted you to do? 

When it comes to seeking God, you must make prayer your first step in all things. Consider scripture, truth, and righteousness. Consider what the word says and what God says about whatever it is that you’re trying to decide to do. Run to God for his wisdom and advice no matter what.

How to Seek God: Trust God’s Plan

The third thing that comes to mind when I think about seeking God first is trusting God to take care of whatever it is that you’re worrying about. Seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first, and then everything else will be added unto you.

If you are so focused on what you lack, what you want, what stinks about your situation your focus is not first on things of God.  God wants you to know that you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to eat, where you’re going to sleep, or what clothes you’re going to wear.

He is a good father. If he takes care of the sparrows, surely he is going to take care of you. His daughter, created in his image, whom he loves so much that he sent his son to die on the cross for. It comes down to this: can you truly trust God to take care of whatever the rest is for you in your life? 

Final Thoughts on How to Seek God

When it comes to seeking God first and putting God first in your life it is simply making God and his will and his purposes top priority over everything else that’s going on. I can testify to the fact that when I am focused on God, when my eyes are on Heaven, when my heart is postured toward him, and I am spending time with him everything else truly does work out itself.

Not to say that things are perfect and things are fully resolved. But I’m not as stressed, anxious, depressed or worried. I feel safe because I trust God and I know that he loves me and I know that he wants what’s best for me.

I know that I am seeking him and that he’s going to take care of anything else that needs to be taken care of. He’s going to speak to you and give you wisdom, direction, and guidance. He might give you a warning. You might get a correction. Those are never fun, but they’re always needed and necessary. 

Do your best not to be legalistic about it and take it one day at a time.

Other Helpful Resources:

• Staying Organized with a Quiet Time Basket
• Are Meditation and Affirmations Biblical?
• How to Pray Scripture

Knowing how to seek God will help you when you feel like you don’t know what to do.