The Main Thing (Friday Devotional)

 

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

- Matthew 6:33

If you go to football stadiums around the nation, from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte to AT&T Stadium right down the road in Arlington, you’ll see advertisements and sponsorships everywhere, from the parking lot to the concessions stand. Indeed, just the naming rights for major arenas are multimillion dollar contracts. Go to any college or pro sporting event these days and you’ll be bombarded with marketing.

Everywhere, that is, except for the largest of them all, Michigan Stadium, a.k.a. “The Big House.” The Wolverines are one of only two FBS programs—the other is Notre Dame—to eschew corporate advertising in their facilities. Where you might normally find a Coca-Cola logo or a Geico sign, you instead find photos of past Michigan greats and other reminders of the school’s history. Not until last year was there even discussion of introducing corporate advertising, because the football program’s mentality is simple: we want to keep the main thing the main thing.

In a field like college athletics, where money is everything, that attitude seems contradictory, even foolish. But for Michigan, it hasn’t seemed to hurt the bottom line—Michigan has the most all-time wins in the history of college football, is a title contender every year, and won the national championship as recently as 2023. By maintaining their focus on what matters most, they trust that the smaller things will take care of themselves.

Believers can learn something from that attitude. We often get hung up on our own concerns, priorities, and opinions, running ourselves ragged trying to make sure things are under our control. But Jesus told us what priority number one ought to be: “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Following God, not pleasing ourselves, is supposed to come first.

And the beautiful truth is, when you do that, the things you would otherwise have been obsessing over tend to work themselves out—as Jesus put it, “these things will be added unto you.” While the secular proverb says, ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ the Bible teaches that God blesses those—whether spiritually, emotionally, or materially—who align themselves with his will. Keep the main thing the main thing, and the secondary stuff comes second.

So here’s the big question: what comes first in your life?