Seek and You Will Find

Seek and You Will Find
Matthew 6:24-34
Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, then all these things will be added to you.

“Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” That question is as timely today as it was when Jesus asked it 2,000 years ago.
Does worrying do us any good?It would be good to know that, because, Lord knows, we’ve put huge amounts of time and energy into worrying about all sorts of things. And what’s more, it seems that life has been generous in providing us with what seems like an unlimited supply of possible problems in which we can invest our anxiety.But having burned through all that anxiety, what do we have to show for it?
Have we, as Jesus asked, added even a single hour to our lives?
Certainly, since Jesus asked that question rhetorically, he intended for his audience to answer it in their minds with a resounding “No!”

Now, I would like to make a connection that worry and pessimism are linked. Pessimism is an outlook on life that lieads to much of the worrying that we do. The pessimist looks for every little thing that could go wrong, every little detail that could possibly become something worth worrying about.

My grandfather was a pessimist—we called him a grumpy old man. It didn’t matter how positive the outlook of something was for every one else in the room, he would always find something to worry about—be grumpy about.
For instance, he loved the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, you’d never figure that out by listening to him as he watched a game. The Steelers could be up by 20 points in the 4th quarter, and if you asked him how the Steelers were doing, he'd say something like, “Ahhh, there’s still plenty of time. They’ll screw this up somehow.”

Do you know anyone like that?
Are you like that?

When Jesus posed this question about adding to our life through worry, he went on to make it clear that what he was calling for instead was for us to see God’s divine optimism, God’s promise of life and providence all around us. He pointed to the birds that do not sow or reap the fields but are fed by the heavenly Father nonetheless. He pointed to the flowers that do not toil or spin but are clothed in beauty by the heavenly Father anyway.
Jesus is saying, look around, if when you look at the world around you, or even your own life all you see is the bird, or the flower, then you’re not looking for the good stuff.
You’re not looking for God in your world.
You are not seeking with divine optimism.

It’s critical to understand that Jesus’ words were directed to people who did have to work, to toil, to plan, to care. He wasn’t telling them to stop doing those tasks. The exhortation to not worry is not an excuse for lethargy or any form of neglect of responsibilities. Actually, it’s quite the contrary. Jesus is saying that we need to be more responsible to the things that matter.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to you.
In other words, be responsible Christians, and God will add life to your life.
To be a responsible Christian, then the text exhorts us to see the world around us first for what God is doing, and respond according to that reality instead.

Let’s push this a bit further:
If all we see is our wife, or husband, then we’re not seeing the goodness of God in our marriages holding things together with forgiveness and a divine purpose for marriage as the foundation for any community.
If all we see is our children, then we’re not seeing the goodness of God in the wonder of how a child grows and becomes an adult as we and God are participating together in a miraculous partnership of creation.
If all we see is our jobs, then we’re not seeing the blessing of God providing resources for our household and for ministry, and we’re not seeing the opportunities that God has given us just to find fulfillment in work.
If all we see are more and more people moving into the neighborhood, then we’re not seeing the way God is bringing people to us so that we might reveal His glory by our love and hospitality.
On this Memorial Day, if all we see is a war that’s gone bad, then we’re not seeing the passion of a God that brings courage to every soldier who is willing to fight and die so that others may live in freedom.

Nothing we do, nothing we worry about can add even a moment to our life.
Only God can add to life to our life.

That's the gift of God--We all live, but only God can add life to life. And, God wants to do so for all of us.

He promises to all who seek him first, that they will find the kingdom of God, and life will be added their life
We know there is truth in this promise from God because we can prove it by our own experience.
What you seek is indeed what you find.
If you’re seeking trouble, no good—you’re going to find it.
If you’re seeking nothing but negative things---that’s what you’re going to find.

Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
Seek for God in all that you see and all that you do—and you’ll find Him.
You will also find that the day to day things we worry about are added,
so that we cease to worry about them.

So, in the end we are left with a choice. We can continue seeing the world through the same old grumpy pessimistic lenses that can see only the need to worry more and more for all sorts of things that, in the end, don’t matter.
Or, we can trust in this promise from Jesus of eternal life—life added to life—and then put on new lenses, his lenses, the ones that see the world the way Jesus saw it—with divine optimism.
Such divine optimism that enabled him to see God’s amazing grace flowing through his actions for us even as he died a horrible death on a cross.
That’s divine optimism!

And that’s the definition of “hope.”
My friends, I am yet to meet a hopeful Christian who was at the same time a pessimist.
To live with a daily dose of hope is to live trusting that Jesus Christ has died for you and that now life is spent as his disciple in a state of endless promise.
To live as Christ’s disciple is to add life to life.
that is not just a promise—that’s divine optimism.

And it goes a long way toward reducing worry.

Amen.