By Jamere King

Espanol. Korean

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Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

There was a season in my life when the loudest voice wasn’t God’s — it was a basketball bouncing on a gym floor. I was a college athlete, and honestly, everything in my world revolved around the game. My identity, my purpose, my schedule — all of it.

6 a.m. conditioning. Classes. Weights. Late-night study hall. Wake up tired and do it again.

I even missed holidays with my family, flying out the day after Christmas for two-a-days and tournaments.

I share that because it shows what it really means to be kingdom minded. It means lining your whole life up with God’s priorities — not sports, not chasing a promotion, not the American dream. Matthew 6:33 says when we put God’s kingdom first, everything else finds its place. And the way we do that is through three things: kingdom identity, kingdom priorities, and kingdom mission.

First: kingdom identity.

It’s knowing who you belong to and remembering you’re a new creation in Christ. God chose you — and that shapes how you live.

Think about going to a hyped-up new restaurant and getting terrible service from a waiter with a bad attitude. You’re not just mad at the waiter — you don’t want to come back to the restaurant at all.

That’s how representation works. We represent Jesus everywhere we go. Whether we realize it or not, people are forming opinions about Him based on how we live. So the question becomes: What would Jesus do? — at work, in our marriages, in how we parent, and in how we handle pressure.

Next: kingdom priorities.

A lot of us treat God like insurance — like State Farm or Allstate. We only call Him when something goes wrong, or we ask Him to bless plans we already made without Him.

But God doesn’t want to be part of your life — He wants to be the center of it.

If you took the sun out of the solar system, everything would spin into chaos. In the same way, if you remove the Son from your life, things start falling apart spiritually.

And putting God first usually means being inconvenienced. God cares more about building your character than protecting your comfort.

I see this with my kids when I tell them they can’t bring their iPads on a short car ride. To them, it feels like the end of the world. They don’t see the bigger picture. And honestly, we’re the same way with God. Sometimes what feels like an inconvenience is actually God shaping us for something better.

Finally: kingdom mission.

Jesus lived on mission — to do the will of the Father. But that doesn’t mean you have to preach on a stage or move overseas to be a missionary.

Your mission is right where you are.

• If you’re a parent, your mission is your kids.
• If you’re married, your mission is your spouse.
• If you go to work every day, that job is your mission field.

Wherever God has placed you — that’s where He wants to use you.

So I want to challenge you to take an honest look at your life.

If you’ve been chasing money, status, relationships, or trying to keep up with everybody else — it’s not too late to turn back to Jesus.

When we come back to these three pillars — identity, priorities, and mission — and put God first, we can trust Him to take care of the rest in His time.