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Happy Wednesday, {{first_name | everyone}}!
Jesus spent a lot of time teaching, and our verse fits into one of the biggest portions of teaching in the Gospels, commonly known as “the Sermon on the Mount.”
Also, some fun news: The Voice of the Martyrs is offering Malachi Daily readers a free devotional that I guarantee will help you become more devoted to Jesus. More on this below but if you can’t wait, click here.
In today’s email…
📕 A free devotional guaranteed to build your faith
🏔️ The sermon this verse forms part of
❤️ A step to take in response to Jesus’ message
📚 Books, a video, and a song to go deeper this week
MEMORIZE 🧠
But ____ _____ the _______ of ___ and ___ _____________, and ___ these things will be _____ to you.
Matthew 6:33
Want to review all your memorized verses in one place? Try our new iPhone app here.
TOGETHER WITH THE VOICE OF THE MARTYRS
40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians
For more than 25 years, Todd Nettleton has traveled to restricted nations with The Voice of the Martyrs to meet men and women who boldly live out their Christian faith at great cost.
In his book, When Faith Is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians, Todd invites you to travel with him to meet these bold believers and hear their stories. Each stop on this journey will challenge you to reflect on your own walk with Christ along the sometimes-difficult path toward our heavenly home.
I read When Faith is Forbidden last year (I keep it in my bedside table). I couldn’t get enough of it, and I’ve recommended it to countless friends!
Warning: It will inspire and challenge you to more boldly share your faith.
CONTEXT 📕
There are a few portions of Scripture that make up whole sermons Jesus gave — like the Olivet Discourse, the Upper Room Discourse, and the Sermon on the Mount.
Stretching over three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew (5-7), the Sermon on the Mount is like a how-to-guide for living God’s way in God’s Kingdom.
Jesus often provides a teaching, followed by a specific practice — aka a thing to do to live out that teaching.
Echoing Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, Jesus went up the mountain and gave clear do’s and don’ts.
Some well-known parts you might recognize:
The Beatitudes - “Blessed are the peacemakers…”
(Matthew 5:3–12)The Lord’s Prayer - “Our Father who is in Heaven…”
(Matthew 6:9–13)The Golden Rule - “Treat others how you want to be treated…”
(Matthew 7:12)
These are some of the most famous parts of the Bible, and all of them come from the Sermon on the Mount. All of them link to our memory verse and what it means to seek God’s kingdom.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it very clear to see that God’s way is…different.
In fact, many Christian thinkers have come to describe it as upside-down.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Instead of seeking your own wealth and flourishing, God’s people are encouraged to seek first the eternal treasures of the kingdom of God.
That is what our memory verse is talking about.
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
It’s a call to shift your focus.
From self-preservation to God’s purposes, trusting that he is a Father who knows what you need and is faithful to provide it.
Worry focuses your attention on the temporal.
Seeking first God’s Kingdom focuses your attention on the eternal.
APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃♂
🤔 Reflect
Why is seeking God’s way upside-down compared to the way of the world?
🏃♂ Act
Take your diary, planner, or the things on your to-do list and edit them to seek first God’s kingdom for each item this week. Live upside-down.
Pray before that important meeting that God’s will be done, not your own.
Show God’s love and patience to your kids over getting to church 30 seconds faster.
Pause before making an impulsive decision and ask God what to do.
🙏 Pray
Father, thank you for the Sermon on the Mount. Please help me to follow Jesus’ teaching and to live your way in everything I do. May people look at my life and catch a glimpse of the kingdom. Shift my focus to your Kingdom instead of the temporary things of this world. Amen.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES 📚
Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into our memory verse and its themes:
📕 FREE: When Faith is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians (link)
📚 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)
Did you know? Over 7,000 Malachi Daily subscribers are people who came to faith recently, or are returning after a long season away. Which is great news! God is pursuing people who have been distant from him for decades — and they are responding!
These 7,000 people found us, but there are millions more out there who haven't yet.
Malachi Daily is free because monthly supporters choose to keep it that way. A few dollars a month helps us reach the people still looking for exactly what you found here.
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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
If you missed our emails from earlier this week, you can read them here:
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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