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Today's Devotional

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

The way of the world is to seek the things of this world in the first place, and to seek them vehemently, and too often unscrupulously, and to leave the things which pertain to the kingdom of God and his righteousness to be sought after when we shall have “a convenient season.” The energies of the body and mind and all the best feelings of the heart being thus too often expended upon worldly and perishable objects there is no strength left for pursuing the duties of religion.

The Scriptures say, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;” make religion to hold the chief place in our heart and the inferior things of the world an inferior place; then may we depend upon God for as much prosperity and success as he sees fit to send us. Let not then the things of this world make us forget our everlasting welfare; let not the pleasures of this life render us insensible to the joys of religion. The best way to be provided for in this world is to set our affections on the things of the next. To begin with God is to begin at the right end.

About the author and the source

We often do not know what stories lie behind devotional books. In the case of Daily Readings, we have a hint. It was produced “in the hope of furnishing to the Inhabitants of two Villages in Northumberland, some counter-action against the moral evils arising from the temporary settlement of Railway Labourers in the immediate neighbourhood.”