Jesus did not ask to be admired, analyzed, or endlessly discussed; He asked to be followed. Again and again, He spoke plainly, offering not a system of belief but a Way to be lived, and He attached real weight to His words. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46, KJV). This series begins there—not with what others have said about Jesus, not with doctrines formed around Him, but with the sayings of the Master Himself. If His words are more than poetry, more than inspiration, more than religious ornament, then they are invitations to action, to reorientation, to a lived obedience that reaches beneath thought and belief into daily Being. The SAYINGS series is an exploration of what Jesus Christ actually said we are to do, approached slowly, attentively, and without fear, trusting that His words still carry the power to awaken LIFE when they are received and lived rather than merely affirmed.

We begin this series of the sayings of Jesus with the instruction “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33, KJV). With this saying, the Master establishes not merely an instruction, but an order of life. The Kingdom is not presented as a future reward or a distant hope, but as the first concern of the present moment, the ground from which all right action, clarity, and provision arise. This is a saying that cannot be safely bypassed, spiritualized away, or postponed without distorting everything that follows. The SAYINGS series unfolds from this center, inviting the reader to remain with the words of Jesus Christ as He speaks them—about anxiety, resistance, humility, identity, forgiveness, and awakening—not as isolated teachings, but as movements within a single Way, rooted in the continual act of seeking the Kingdom before all else.

The sayings of the Master are not simply words to be read, remembered, or admired. They are invitations to be embodied. Like signposts along a Way, they point beyond themselves toward a lived reality that cannot be reduced to language. The words are not the territory they describe, just as a menu is not the banquet it announces. The true nourishment is found not in repeating the sayings, but in living them, allowing the life they point toward to be tasted, known, and received through direct experience.

It is often more faithful to remain with a single saying for months, even for a season of life, than to read many and quickly move on. The value is not found in collecting the sayings of the Master, but in allowing one word to work patiently within you. As you read, you may notice that a particular saying draws your attention, stirs resistance, or quietly stays with you. This is not accidental. To choose one saying and live with it—to return to it, test it, fail within it, and begin again—is the practice of unfolding.

Reading a saying is not the same as receiving what it invites. Familiarity can easily be mistaken for understanding. To read the words “Seek first the kingdom of God” does not mean one yet knows what it is to seek, or what it is to find. The sayings are not exhausted by comprehension; they open only through lived response. What they reveal is given gradually, as they are embodied, trusted, and allowed to reshape the inner life over time.

Remaining with a saying does not mean attempting to unpack it through analysis or repeated thought. The sayings of the Master do not open in that way. They are more like nested chambers, revealing themselves gradually, layer by layer, as a Russian doll is opened—not by force, but by patience and lived attention. What is disclosed is not reached by mental effort alone, but through trust, practice, and time. This is why Jesus spoke so plainly about the limits of thought itself: “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” (Matthew 6:27, KJV). Growth does not come by strain or cleverness, but by allowing what is already given to unfold from within.

Staying with a saying, then, is not a problem to be solved but a life to be entered. Its meaning is not seized; it is revealed. As each layer opens, what seemed familiar is found to be deeper than first imagined, and what was once only read becomes lived experience.

The sayings of the Master are not finally addressed to the familiar sense of self that thinks, evaluates, and manages life. They speak beneath that surface level, calling attention away from the self we are constantly trying to maintain and toward a deeper availability in which life is no longer centered on “me.” This is why the sayings often feel unsettling, impractical, or even impossible when approached from the standpoint of the everyday mind. They are not meant to reinforce the personality, but to loosen its grip, making space for another way of living to emerge.

To remain with a saying is to allow this shift to occur without force or self-improvement. What is invited is not a better-managed self, but a different center altogether—one in which action, understanding, and response arise from beyond habitual thought. In this way, the sayings lead not toward self-assertion, but toward a life that is increasingly lived through rather than lived from.