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Whenever I come across Matthew 6:33, I tend to pause and take stock: whose kingdom am I primarily seeking right now?
And it often leads me to course correct.
We pray that this week has helped you reflect on that same question, and that it has brought you clarity on what it means for you to seek God’s kingdom in your life right now.
In today’s email…
🎁 The vow I’m (finally) keeping to myself this year
📕 A review of everything we’ve learned this week
❤️ One challenge to carry the verse into the weekend
✅ The full answer key, with nothing left showing
MEMORIZE 🧠
___ ____ _____ ___ _______ __ ___ ___ ___ _____________, ___ ___ _____ ______ ____ __ _____ __ ___.
Matthew 6:33
Want to review all your memorized verses in one place? Try our new iPhone app here.
TOGETHER WITH TEKTONES
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Check out all three of Tektones’ 2026 sets today!
The Nativity (Pre-order & ships mid-November)
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This Christmas, you can build your very own Nativity set as a family, or assemble a blue whale that can actually swallow the Jonah mini-figure. No matter what you choose, if you gift someone a set from Tektones, you will definitely be the hero of the day!
CONTEXT 📕
This week, we studied a popular and familiar passage. Hopefully, meditating on it day-by-day created space for the Holy Spirit to help you connect with Matthew 6:33 at a deeper level.
On Monday, we started by looking at who wrote these words of Jesus down: Matthew, a tax collector turned disciple.
Matthew shows us that to “seek first the kingdom” means to part with selfish desires, to let go of your own plans, and to reorganize your priorities around God.
On Tuesday we traveled to the slopes next to the Sea of Galilee, and sat with the disciples to hear Jesus say: “Look at the birds".
We considered how our memory verse connects to the preceding warnings against worry and anxiety, and considered ways to be more present — like Jesus was in that moment.
We also pointed out how worry either:
Causes you to suffer for no reason (when the bad thing you worry about never actually happens) or
Doubles your trouble (when you suffered in your imagination and in reality.
Wednesday took us into the broader passage that our verse forms part of — the Sermon on the Mount.
We looked at the many important truths taught here and landed on what it means to live God’s way: upside-down. Our treasure is in heaven, not on earth. It is eternal, not temporary.
And then yesterday, we spent time unpacking what the “kingdom of God” is.
Throughout the gospels, Jesus describes the kingdom as having two stages.
It’s already here because Jesus brought it with him.
But it’s also not yet in that it’s something we wait for in its full, visible completion when he returns.
You and I get to live with the reality of the kingdom in our hearts, and with the eager anticipation of getting to see it fully permeate all of God’s creation.
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God
APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃♂
💪 Challenge
When you have a decision to make this weekend, say Matthew 6:33 out loud and ask yourself:
What might it look like to seek God’s kingdom first in this moment?
Examples of decisions:
to buy / not to buy
to fight and prove yourself right / to let it be
to worry / to allow God
🙏 Pray
Father, thank you for your Word. It is such a gift to me that I get to unwrap anew each day. I admire your creativity and detail in that every single verse is connected to the bigger story. You are so thoughtful and amazing, I praise you. Help me learn increasingly what it means to live under your reign in my life. I want to seek first your kingdom. Amen.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES 📚
In case you missed them, here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into our memory verse and its themes:
📚 The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (link)
📚 Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (link)
📚 Sermon on the Mount by Jen Wilkin (link)
📹 Matthew Overview by The Bible Project (link)
📱 Our iPhone app for Scripture memorization (link)
🎵 "Seek Ye First" by Maranatha! Music (Spotify | Apple Music)
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ANSWER KEY ✅
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33
Phew! That was a week full deep Biblical truth. I hope you have a blessed weekend, where you get to chew on, and digest some of what we uncovered.
And also, may you be present enough to look at the birds!
Best,
The Malachi Daily team 🙏
Today’s Contributors
Eljoh is a South African writer, editor, and artist with a Master’s in Practical Theology. She creates resources to help believers of all ages abide in Christ and grow in faith. Explore more free resources and creative tools at Vine Creative Studio.
Kieran is a husband and father living in NJ. In addition to Malachi Daily, he writes a personal newsletter about the intersection of faith, fatherhood and entrepreneurship.
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Try our iPhone app 📱
Want to go even deeper with memorizing Scripture and learning its context?
Our iPhone app, Within allows you to:
Memorize 1 verse every single week and learn its context through daily devotionals you can read (or listen to)
Memorize any verse you want in your favorite bible translation
Store all of your previously memorized verses in one place (and review them regularly with interactive games)
And much more!
What are the differences between Within and Malachi Daily?
Malachi Daily 📧 | Within 📱 | |
|---|---|---|
Type of tool | Email newsletter | iOS mobile app |
Cost | Free | 7-day free trial, then $5.99/mo or $49.99/year |
# of verses | 4 verses per month as a community | 4 verses per month as a community + unlimited for any verse you want |
Who chooses the verse | We choose | We choose AND you can memorize any verse you want, anytime |
Bible translation(s) | ESV | ESV, NIV, NLT, KJV, and NASB |
Reviewing previously memorized verses | You do this on your own | Use the built-in memory bank |
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