Weakness and the Kingdom of God

God forced me (thankfully) to see my weakness this past week when I was listening to worship music. It gave me some thought, so here I am on weakness and the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom is established for us on Jesus shocking choice of complete vulnerability. He suffered and died in weakness though he was the ruler of all. He did this to save us.    However, he also asked us to be this way. Thus, the Apostles and many others did suffer and die.

Let’s look at a few Beatitudes

“Blessed are the poor in spirit….
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn…. 
⁵ Blessed are the meek…
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…
⁷ Blessed are the merciful…

We represent and draw close to God in our weakness, Our weakness is real. For example, we cannot convert anyone. God can.

We cannot live 100 years as superman.

Furthermore, we do not have enough love to give to our families often.

We may fail at work or with friends.

Even more so, we may use our time poorly.

Any number of things could kill us on the spot.

Weakness and the Kingdom of God are True

Are we not weak? Sure we are. Can we admit it to our friends and family?

Can we come to God in our weakness?

We are loved beyond our understanding

The kingdom of God goes to those who know and live out the truth of our weakness. Also, Jesus told us to take our our cross. He wants us to live in weakness.

This does not mean we live with low self esteem. We are deeply loved and God gives us the important work of proclaiming the good news to a lost world.  God placed his image within each person, so no person is trash. Each person is valuable beyond measure, but lives in weakness like Jesus did.

Let me paste this well known verse:

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

To put another way, When we are vulnerable to our friends, our family and coworkers, we draw the world to ourselves just as Jesus did to us. Let us be real and not be acting tough. It is the way of heaven.