{"id":410,"date":"2025-02-26T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=410&2025"},"modified":"2025-02-24T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:00:00","slug":"seeking-the-kingdom-first-luke-12-13-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/seeking-the-kingdom-first-luke-12-13-34\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking the Kingdom First: Luke 12:13-34"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Luke 12:13-34 (NASB)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\" style=\"display: none;\"><p><sup>13<\/sup>\u00a0Someone in the crowd said to Him, &#8220;Teacher, tell my brother to divide the <em>family<\/em> inheritance with me.&#8221; <sup>14<\/sup>\u00a0But He said to him, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?&#8221;<\/span> <sup>15<\/sup>\u00a0Then He said to them, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not <em>even<\/em> when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.&#8221;<\/span> <sup>16<\/sup>\u00a0And He told them a parable, saying, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;The land of a rich man was very productive.<\/span> <sup>17<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">And he began reasoning to himself, saying, &#8216;What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?&#8217;<\/span> <sup>18<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">Then he said, &#8216;This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.<\/span> <sup>19<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">And I will say to my soul, &#8220;Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years <em>to come;<\/em> take your ease, eat, drink <em>and<\/em> be merry.&#8221;&#8217;<\/span> <sup>20<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But God said to him, &#8216;You fool! This <em>very<\/em> night your soul is required of you; and <em>now<\/em> who will own what you have prepared?&#8217;<\/span> <sup>21<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.&#8221;<\/span> <\/p><p><sup>22<\/sup>\u00a0And He said to His disciples, <span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;For this reason I say to you, do not worry about <em>your<\/em> life, <em>as to<\/em> what you will eat; nor for your body, <em>as to<\/em> what you will put on.<\/span> <sup>23<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.<\/span> <sup>24<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and <em>yet<\/em> God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!<\/span> <sup>25<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">And which of you by worrying can add a <em>single<\/em> <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Lit <em>cubit<\/em> (approx 18 in.)<\/span>hour to his <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Or <em>height<\/em><\/span>life&#8217;s span?<\/span> <sup>26<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?<\/span> <sup>27<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.<\/span> <sup>28<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is <em>alive<\/em> today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more <em>will He clothe<\/em> you? You men of little faith!<\/span> <sup>29<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying.<\/span> <sup>30<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.<\/span> <sup>31<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.<\/span> <sup>32<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.<\/span> <\/p><p><sup>33<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">&#8220;Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.<\/span> <sup>34<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"red-letter\">For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.<\/span><\/p><p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=luke 12:13-34&amp;version=NASB\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Luke 12:13-34<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>For this journal entry, let\u2019s look at a misconception that many people have about what God promises to give us when we follow Him. The headline for this passage is often something like the \u201cParable of the Rich Fool\u201d for the first part, and then \u201cTeaching about Money and Possessions\u201d for the second part. With that frame of mind, many people latch on to the following two verses as a promise from God:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c<strong>For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.<\/strong>\u201d (Verses 30-31)<\/p>\r\n<p>Looking out into society, we see nations and individuals seeking fame, power, prominence, glory, wealth, security, as well as a number of other things. Since we just read the headline and have a frame of mind that this must be talking about wealth and stuff, then these verses must then be promising us both if we seek His kingdom.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, while the passage does open with the parable of the blessed, stingy fool <em>(he would have not needed to build bigger barns had God not blessed him with an abundant crop)<\/em>, Jesus then begins to frame how we should view our money and our stuff, and what really matters. Jesus tells the disciples:<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\u201cFor this reason I say to you, do not worry about\u00a0<em>your<\/em>\u00a0life, <em>as to<\/em>\u00a0what you will eat; nor for your body,\u00a0<em>as to<\/em>\u00a0what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. . . And which of you by worrying can add a\u00a0<em>single<\/em>\u00a0hour to his\u00a0life\u2019s span?\u00a0If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? . . . And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.\u00a0But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.\u201d<\/strong> (Verses 22-23, 25-26, 29-31)<\/p>\r\n<p>The context of this promise is that God promises us food, clothing, and peace, and He will give these things to us when we seek His Kingdom as our number one priority. Money, status, fame, or luxuries are not included in this list. While God may bless some people with one or more of these things, there is no promise that He will do so for everyone.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Instead, we should be grateful for what God has blessed us with; we should seek Him and His kingdom into our lives; and we should seek to use what He has blessed us with in ways that would please Him. Gratitude is where we should begin, because one big truth I see between the lines in this passage is that when we are grateful for what God has done for us, we won\u2019t be as inclined to worry about what will happen next.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--410\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '410');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For this journal entry, let\u2019s look at a misconception that many people have about what God promises to give us when we follow Him. The headline for this passage is often something like the \u201cParable of the Rich Fool\u201d for the first part, and then \u201cTeaching about Money and Possessions\u201d for the second part. With [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seeking the Kingdom First: Luke 12:13-34 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/seeking-the-kingdom-first-luke-12-13-34\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeking the Kingdom First: Luke 12:13-34 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For this journal entry, let\u2019s look at a misconception that many people have about what God promises to give us when we follow Him. 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