Today Is Where the Kingdom Is

Blog by Alan Fadling

We all know what it feels like to be pulled out of the present—stretched thin by worries about tomorrow or tangled in regrets from yesterday. In such moments, the familiar words of Jesus in Matthew 6 can sound out of touch. But what if his call to “seek first the kingdom” isn’t some lofty religious ideal but a grounded, daily practice that offers us peace right where we are?

Let’s revisit those words of Jesus in context:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

As I recently reflected on this counsel from Jesus, I was struck by what he says about today and what he says about tomorrow.

Today, there is something I can give my primary attention to: God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. This can feel like religious language detached from everyday realities, but it is far from that.

In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard writes, “God’s own ‘kingdom,’ or ‘rule,’ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom.”*

We seek his kingdom first when we recognize that what God wants done is what matters most, and that what God wishes to do in and through me is what matters most for me. Anxiety tempts me to try time travel—to the past in regret or guilt, or to the future in nervous anticipation. But right now, in the present moment, I can offer myself to God’s leading, guiding, and empowering me to do the good things that lie immediately before me.

This brings us to the idea of seeking first God’s righteousness. Again, this can be misunderstood as trying to be extra religious somehow, but it is simply a way of saying that we seek to be aligned with what God says is good, beautiful, and true. There are many voices proclaiming what is or isn’t good. But only God is truly good, and seeking his guidance in these matters is what leads to peace over anxiety.

I remember a season of years in which I was addressing the anger and the anxiety in my life. After we’d been working together for a while, my counselor said, “It looks like your anger has begun to be unwound from the inside. It doesn’t seem as quick to flare as it used to be.” He was right. I had found healing from some of the deep wounds that would erupt in anger when I felt belittled or threatened.

He also said, “There will come a day when anxiety will no longer be a major issue for you either.” At that time I hadn’t made as much progress in my struggle with anxiety as I’d made with my anger. But his words were prophetic. He was right. I have been learning from Jesus how to live more rooted in peace rather than stuck in anxiety.

I believe that same freedom is available to you. You don’t have to be trapped in a cycle of worry about tomorrow. The grace of Christ is enough for today, and it will be enough for tomorrow when tomorrow comes.

So today, as an act of trust, what is one small way you can practice seeking first God’s kingdom of grace and peace?

Perhaps it’s pausing in a moment of stress to breathe and remember that God is with you.

Maybe it’s choosing to be present in a conversation rather than being lost in anxious thoughts about the future.

Or it could be surrendering a specific worry to God in prayer and asking for the grace to rest in his care. In prayer, we can practice the presence of God instead of practicing the presence of our anxiety through worry.

Each of these is a step toward a non-anxious life—one shaped not by fear but by the peace of Christ himself.

In A Non-Anxious Life I included a benediction I wrote that is an expanded paraphrase of the words Paul uses to start most of his letters: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let me close this article with that benediction:

May God’s empowering presence, his measureless generosity, and his great goodness be with you, seeking you before ever you seek him. And may grace bear the fruit of deep well-being, freedom from anxious care, and a soul at rest in the Presence of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

For Reflection:

• What does “seeking first the kingdom” look like in the ordinary rhythms of your day?
• Where do you most often feel pulled into tomorrow’s worries—and how might you return to today?
• What might change if you trusted that God is already present in your tomorrow, just as he is today?

*Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), p. 32.