Scot McNight
The Kingdom looks for humble beggars because they experience God’s rule. His kingdom is the inverse of all earthly kingdoms. Searching for His kingdom is worth every effort. Our faith is in the King of kings, not presidents, prime ministers or dictators
The Kingdom looks for those hungry and thirsty, not the ones gloating in their cultural power, show boating their latest possessions
The Kingdom looks for those wailing in grief and loss, stripping all cultural and worldly comforts. Our losses enable us to depend on His presence. He will NEVER leave us or abandon us
The Kingdom looks for Those who place their trust in our King, not temporary circumstances. Everything that is worthwhile can be scary, including relationships, goals, and our well being. Living in faith hope and love can be scary but each investment is worth the return.
The Kingdom looks for peace makers. When others add you to their hate list, isolate you and degrade you, you remain calm, making every effort to diffuse extremist thought. Even when your name is criticized, take comfort in Jesus who was persecuted as for His staying on mission. Many will take no interest in the upside down economy of His kingdom. Eternal wages and rewards are not measured by any earthly calculation. Punching back, getting even, retreating to hide do not demonstrate the power of kingdom hope, love and faith. What is to come cannot be compared to what is now. Those who boast in power or possessions already have their reward in full.
The Kingdom looks for those who live a quiet life and mind their own business, yet genuinely build a community of kingdom minded followers of Jesus. The kingdom is not forcing rules and regulations. It is an invitation to participate in our Triune God’s agenda.
The kingdom builds a strong person, strengthens families and communities. Kingdom strengths afford individuals and groups to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It is empowerment to extend a helping hand to others. Kingdom strengths oppose behaving with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”
The Kingdom looks for those who seek to be joyful, placing their anger and frustrations upon our Savior. He will take care of all injustice but kingdom living is action from a heart of peace, not retaliation.
The Kingdom looks for those who live with grace and mercy, demonstrating compassion with everyone and anyone, regardless of background, color or so up economic status every knee will bow before the King
The Kingdom offers small and often unnoticed opportunities to plant seeds of kindness, peace, calmness and our presence in a chaotic noise world. Our small decisions to participate in the Kingdom give evidence of His presence through faith, hope and love.
The Kingdom looks for those who avoid a tit for a tat, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, a wound for a wound. By our Savior’s wounds we are healed.
The Kingdom looks for those who live in hope of better things to come. The best is yet to be. Today we see in part, but one day we will experience His presence in full.
The Kingdom looks for those who live under cover, seeking no credit. Celebrity status, platform building, or audience applause are not kingdom qualities. In the kingdom, the right hand isn’t even be aware of the left hand’s good works.
The Kingdom is the narrow road, simple but difficult, not comfortable like the wide road of the many that leads to destruction and ruin.
The Kingdom looks for those demonstrating bold love, voraciously coming along side the vulnerable, weak, and hurting
The Kingdom looks for those who live out their lives with gratitude and simplicity. Negativity, cynicism, blaming, entitlement are not kingdom character qualities.
The Kingdom looks for those who practice the King’s presence, not those who merely talk the talk. Listening, reading without action is faking it. Reality is in the practice, even in the small steps we take.
The Kingdom looks for those who practice His love, even though difficult. Building habits of love are far different than having a mental checklist of do’s and don’ts. Living in the kingdom is a rhythm of doing, led by the Spirit.
The Kingdom looks for those who are transformed into a new identity, leaving the old ways of living behind. Kingdom living creates a tension of knowing we are not home yet, intensifying our desire for heaven to come in us, His will to be done in us.
The Kingdom looks for those who want to learn, to be better, to do better. Learners are citizens of the kingdom, not the know it alls, who think they know it all. Our along knows every heart, every motivation, every thought.
The Kingdom looks for those who surrender and obey Him, not those who oppress and lord themselves as deserving of more. Obedience to the King’s presence brings freedom, peace and joy.
The Kingdom looks for those who search for the Kingdom, listening and watching for what the King may ask us to do. The King invites us to participate in what the Kingdom is already doing. What He initiates, He will permeate and sustain, with or without us. What we initiate, we may need to sustain on our own power without His blessing.
The Kingdom looks for those who resist self sufficiency and independence, magnets that draw us away from dependence on our Triune God. Rebelling against independence draws us into a radical interdependence on those who walk the Narrow Way.
The Kingdom looks for those who do not hide their weaknesses and flaws. Boasting about self made strength repels the draw of the Kingdom. Promoting self is an illusion of other kingdoms that do not last.
The kingdom allows us to suffer pain and need, enabling us to experience the presence of our King who was tortured, persecuted, and executed for our sins. Our King will NEVER leave us or abandon us, regardless of our circumstances.
The Kingdom looks for those who are purely focused on Jesus, filtering away all distractions to loving Him. The more Christ like we become in character, the more we can identify what is not of pure motives.
What the Kingdom searches for may often be considered foolish and abnormal by most of the world.
May His kingdom be the reality we experience, may His will be done in us as we seek His presence in us, around us.
Phillip Yancey
My understanding of the Beatitude's has undergone a radical change. I no longer see them S sop thrown by Jesus to the unfortunates of the world. I view them not as patronizing slogans, but as profound insights into the mystery of human existence. The poor, the hungry, the mourners, and those who suffer truly are blessed, not because of their miserable states, of course - Jesus spent much of Hks life trying to remedy those mysteries. Rather, they are blessss because of an innate advantage they hold over people more comfortable and self sufficient.
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