When God is entrusting influence to our care He’s doing so to promote His Kingdom not ours.
Not only had Jesus become powerful and influential but he was leading a group of men who would soon become very powerful and influential to their world.
What was the foundational teaching Jesus brought before teaching on salt and light about being powerful and influential in Matthew 5? Brokenness is the prerequisite to power in God’s Kingdom.
Matt 5:1 …His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be poor in spirit is to be fully aware that we are absolutely powerless on our own. We are spiritually bankrupt without Jesus. In this understanding we find great motivation to completely surrender to Him. It is in the place of total surrender to Jesus that much power and influence can be entrusted to our care.
Matt 20:27 “…godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads…” MSG
Margaret Thatcher said, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”