Strong Men - A Second Look

When someone says the word "strength", what comes to mind? What image does the phrase "tough guy" conjure up? More often than not, we associate the term "strength" with physical prowess, or who we could beat up. It's an idea that the world has force-fed us, especially men, all our lives. In sports, media, particularly Hollywood, were taught that the tough guy always wins. We have been given a twisted idea of what it means to be strong. God has some very different views on strength than most of us are familiar with. From the Nehemiah 8:10... The joy of the Lord is your strength to Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) to his praying forgiveness for those who crucified him (Luke 23: 34) we see true strength from someone who had a choice. He, being God in the flesh, could have changed his mind at any time and not gone through what he did. Likewise the toughest things we will be called upon to do won't be the things that make us look strong to the world: so before we get too caught up in our own ideas of strength, power, or even spiritual maturity, let's take a look at Mark 10 verses 13-16 as Jesus explains that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (little children). We need to unlearn most of what we've been taught growing up and relearn what it means to be strong.