It almost seems too obvious to write down as it’s written across every page of the book, it’s ingrained in all that God does and is. Yet still we forget and still we need to keep coming back to this startling truth again and again. 

God uses weak people

God’s power is displayed most beautifully as he takes weak, silly, desperate, broken and sinful people and uses them in His purposes. God takes the broken and despised and enables them to sing and dance because they are loved, accepted and belong in a family once more. 

We have a God who works in the opposite way

God picks the weak. If He was on the sports field at school He would pick the ones overlooked, the weedy small ones, the no good ones, the ones shivering at the back hoping not to be noticed. God actively seeks out the weak. Look through the whole of history. Look at the characters on display in the bible, heroes of the faith who all displayed weakness.  Think of the lives of Jacob, Abraham, Elijah, Samson, David, Peter and more: womanisers, deceivers, liars, those who despaired, the socially awkward, women despised by their society, fishermen, a man dying on a cross.

'Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." ' (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

God is unashamed to have these people in His family

He’s a God who is unashamed to look weak and foolish. He’s a God who wants us to come and admit that we are weak and broken, who wants us to stop trying to prove to the world and ourselves that we can cope. He wants to draw us away from our self sufficiency and pride and demonstrate a better way of living. He uses the weak and foolish to show the world that He is God, that He is the one who steps into our lives and transforms them. 

'But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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.' (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

He is the one who pours out grace after grace on us. We don’t need qualifications to be in His family, we don’t need to be articulate, sinless, professional, able to cope, witty, successful or pretty. We come as we are, broken, poor, blind and weak. We come demonstrating to the world that this kingdom is all about God, His love, His initiative, His grace, His power, His glory.