100 Bible Verses about Seeking God First

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 98 helpful votes

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

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 52 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 44 helpful votes

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Proverbs 8:17 ESV / 39 helpful votes

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

Psalm 14:2 ESV / 37 helpful votes

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

Colossians 3:2 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Matthew 6:31-33 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV / 31 helpful votes

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Matthew 7:7-8 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Psalm 63:1 ESV / 27 helpful votes

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 9:10 ESV / 27 helpful votes

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV / 27 helpful votes

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Matthew 6:19-21 ESV / 26 helpful votes

“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.

Isaiah 55:6-7 ESV / 25 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 23 helpful votes

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Matthew 5:6 ESV / 22 helpful votes

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Lamentations 3:25 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

1 Chronicles 28:9 ESV / 20 helpful votes

“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Psalm 119:10 ESV / 19 helpful votes

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

John 15:5 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Psalm 119:2 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,

Luke 19:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Psalm 27:8 ESV / 17 helpful votes

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

Luke 12:31 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

1 John 2:17 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Luke 14:26 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Psalm 40:16 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

Psalm 34:10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

James 4:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Matthew 5:10 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Zephaniah 2:3 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.

Isaiah 55:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Colossians 3:1-4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 8:5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Matthew 16:24-27 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 13:44-46 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Amos 5:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live;

Proverbs 14:12 ESV / 12 helpful votes

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

James 4:14 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Titus 2:11-14 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 11 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

John 17:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Matthew 19:29 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 7:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Psalm 10:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

Job 5:8-9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:

Colossians 3:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 10 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Philippians 4:19 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 10 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Acts 20:35 ESV / 10 helpful votes

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

John 5:30 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 3:30 ESV / 10 helpful votes

He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Luke 12:15 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Matthew 6:21 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Hosea 10:12 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Psalm 37:4 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Matthew 6:22-24 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Psalm 105:4 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 9 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Psalm 14:2-3 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Job 14:1-2 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

Galatians 1:10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

2 Corinthians 8:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

Acts 4:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 3:16 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 6:25-34 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...

Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Proverbs 16:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

2 Chronicles 15:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

1 Chronicles 22:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the Lord.”

Exodus 20:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:1-3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.

James 4:4-8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Hebrews 13:5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

2 Corinthians 8:21 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 10:10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Matthew 22:37 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 7:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 5:3 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Isaiah 40:6-8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Psalm 90:10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

Ephesians 4:27 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And give no opportunity to the devil.

Deuteronomy 4:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Colossians 3:1-2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

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