Page 26 - Demo

Kingdom Trust: Seek First the Kingdom
Matt. 6:25-34
In 1943, an American psychologist, named Abraham Maslow, published his idea that the reasons people have for acting the way they do can be understood as a drive to satisfy a series of basic needs every human feels. These needs are prioritized starting with the most basic physical needs like air, food and water. Once a person has their most basic physical needs met, they can move on to more complex needs like social or psychological fulfillment.
This theory, called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, gives us a window into what drives people and can help us understand how we all act the way we do. It is a theory about how humans prioritize things. The search for food is more important that the search for a prestigious job. Once we have a way of getting food, we search for shelter, then eventually not just a job but a job that gives us a sense of fulfillment.
This raises an important question though. Where do things like “religion” and “church” and “God” fit? Most psychologists would lump religion into the “luxury” category and say it is a low priority. And many of us agree. Look at the way we prioritize things. A student doesn’t do well in school. A parent says, “That’s it, you can’t go to youth group until you get your homework done.” In the parent’s mind, school is more important and has a higher priority that church. Perhaps you are inclined to agree. But replace church with something else and see what happens. Would you think well of a parent who said, “That’s it, you can’t go to the doctor’s office until you get your homework done.” No. Because we understand that education is a good thing. But it’s not more important the health of the individual. But isn’t the church, in some way, a doctor’s office of the soul? Isn’t the parent putting the student’s spiritual health in danger by keeping them from going to church?
The purpose of this example isn’t to critique how parents encourage good study habits in their children but to draw attention to how we, sometimes without knowing it, de-prioritize the things of God. Parents do this with their students. But adults also do this with themselves by emphasizing their career, their hobbies, or their stuff over God. Seeking God becomes something that individual people do with their spare time as long as they don’t have anything better to do.
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