Seek First the Kingdom: Why We Are Not to Pray for Our Needs

Beloved brothers and sisters in the faith,

There is a common practice among many who name the name of Christ that the Spirit of God has already corrected in His Word. Men and women continually pray for health, for wealth, for provision, for healing, for preservation, and for every other need they believe they must bring before the throne. Yet our heavenly Father already knew the needs we would have before we ever knew to ask for them. He is not asking us to pray for them again.

When we persist in praying for those things, we end up praying amiss.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Matthew 6:8 · KJV

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33 · KJV

What then is He asking of us?

He is asking that we seek His kingdom by intercession for others, and His righteousness by obedience to His law. For He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. And that power increases only as we align ourselves and conform to His law.

All things are for our sakes. When we give Him thanks in all things, and conform ourselves to His instructions as He gave them — especially the instruction that upholds the sign of our sanctification in Him — we begin to see the responses we have been anticipating. We begin to see the fulfillment of His promises.

He has directly tied healing and preservation to remaining in place on the seventh day, a command He told us to remember.

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Jeremiah 17:14 · KJV

This is what the Lord says: Watch out! If you value your lives, do not carry anything on the day of rest — a holy day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring anything out of your homes on the day of rest. Do not do any work, but observe the day of rest as a holy day, as I told your ancestors.

Jeremiah 17:21-22 · GW

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.

Exodus 16:28-30 · KJV

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Isaiah 58:13-14 · KJV

Even in the day of trouble the Lord Jesus warned, “But pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day.”

Therefore, instead of praying for healing and preservation — things He already knows we need — our duty is to put our trust in Him, to seek His righteousness by obedience, and to intercede for others that they also might believe on Him and put their trust in Him by walking in His truth. In so doing we seek His kingdom.

When spiritual battles arise

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:4-5, 8 · KJV

Sin is the transgression of the law. Therefore we refrain from it. We remain still in holy convocation with His Spirit, especially on the seventh day.

Cease from praying amiss. Seek first the kingdom through intercession, and His righteousness through obedience to His law. Give thanks in all things. Stay in place on the day He sanctified. Then watch Him fulfill every promise according to the power that worketh in those who are aligned with Him.

Keep the Sabbath holy by staying in place to be still on the seventh day — sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. To be still, in holy convocation with the Spirit of Creation.