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Seek First His Kingdom 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)

The kingdom of God is the theme of the Bible and Jesus' teaching. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is restoration of God's reign in people's lives. The kingdom of God is also the new paradise to come where the creation order will be fully restored forever. Jesus came to bring God's kingdom in his people by freeing them from sin and death through his atoning sacrifice and resurrection. He has empowered God's kingdom in his people through the Holy Spirit.

What is "his righteousness"? Simply it is to be right with God. It involves forgiveness and sanctification. What does "seek first" mean? It means to treat God's kingdom as of highest priority and importance. It also means to set God's kingdom as of supreme value in life. Jesus gives us this mandate with a promise: "and all these things will be given to you as well." Our heavenly Father is almighty. Everything is his. In this economic situation, many have security problems. In God's promise, however, we have nothing to worry about. We will not lack anything as long as we seek first his kingdom. So we can freely serve him in joy. One thing I can tell you is that there has been no one who lived this verse and did not find that this promise is true. I am among those who experienced the truth in this verse. So let me tell you my testimony.

When I was a student missionary at Oregon State University, I met Pastor Ron Ward, who was a sophomore majoring in business at the time. After I finished my master's program in ocean engineering, my advisor recommended me to other prominent universities for doctoral study. But I decided to stay at Oregon State because God had begun his good work in Pastor Ron and two other students. I began my doctoral program under a professor who was a MIT graduate, while serving one-to-ones, Saturday message preparations, and Sunday worship services as before. Soon, however, I reached my limitation, because my professor assigned each of his students with tasks on Fridays and checked their performance on Monday mornings. I did my best to do my assignments after Sunday worship services. According to computer run results, I had good Mondays as well as gloomy Mondays. Soon, my professor learned of my ministry and began to push me to concentrate on research work. I could not do less for my ministry, since God was working. My professor grew more and more dissatisfied until he gave me an ultimatum, "Unless you change, you will be dismissed from the doctoral program."

This led me to struggle in prayer for a week. Satan whispered, "Without a Ph. D, you will be a loser." But God strengthened me to entrust my future unto his mighty hand. I made a decision to resign from research assistantship in order to keep serving the ministry. After prayer, I asked another professor to accept me as his doctoral student. Though such a transfer in the department was unprecedented, God opened the professor's heart to accept me. Indeed God is sovereign and he is almighty. My new advisor gave me a research topic he had struggled to solve for years. I worked on this engineering problem for my doctoral dissertation for two years until only one part was left unsolved. Then one morning God gave me an inspiration of a solution. When I tried it, it worked! Thus God enabled me to solve a 10-year old problem! At the news, my advisor jumped in joy while my former advisor was speechless in amazement. Then my former advisor offered me financial support on the condition of publishing a paper with him. This way, I finished the Ph. D program successfully with a department-wide celebration. Pastor Ron also finished his college education and became a shepherd. After Pastor Ron left to Chicago for staff training, Shepherd Greg Edens succeeded Oregon ministry until he also came to Chicago. Dr. Samuel Lee and Grace Lee took care of them like their own sons and raised them to be God's servants. When I sought God's kingdom and his righteousness first, God not only raised two disciples, but also enabled me to cross the Red Sea of Ph. D study.

Upon returning to Korea, God led me through Dr. John Jun to pioneer Hong-Ik University in Seoul, while working as professor at Korea Military Academy. I made a decision to be a B-professor in order to be an A-shepherd. God accepted my decision and blessed my ministry to grow and send out more than 40 missionaries. When time came for me to be promoted to a colonel, which is the highest military rank for most professors, my competitors tried to slander me, saying, "He is too religious." Then God protected me by sending a devout Christian general as new president of Korea Military Academy. To him, a too religious Christian officer like me was a delight. In fact, he recommended me to be promoted ahead of all my competitors. When I first sought God's kingdom, God not only made me fruitful in ministry, but also gave me honor and success in the world. For the past 33 years, the Lord has blessed me to have freedom, peace, and fruitfulness in all circumstances through his words of Matthew 6:33.

May God help each of us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness so that we may experience the power of faith in our practical lives.