MONDAY October 23rd
1 Peter 5:7-8
‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.’
Humility is such an important characteristic that should be found in the lives of God’s people, and yet sadly often times it is so lacking. Peter reminds us that God opposes those who are proud, James in his letter also says the same thing in James 4:6 ‘Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Both Peter and James are giving their take on Proverbs 3:34 ‘Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favour.’
Here in Peter’s letter, we are told to humble ourselves ‘under the mighty hand of God’, this speaks of coming to a place of total surrender and obedience to the will of God, which we know from Romans 12:1-2 is good, acceptable and perfect. It Is all about us saying ‘Less of me and more of God’, ‘Less of what I want in my life and more of what God has for me in my life’, it is coming to the place of accepting that we do not know what is best, but God does, therefore I will humble, swallow any traces of pride and allow him to rule over me and within me.
Taking the thought from what we have already considered in these verses, it is allowing God to have oversight of my life. The end result will be that in due time God will exalt you (or me). To understand this, we go back to verse 5 where it says that God will give grace to the humble. He will lift us up in times of trouble and weakness, he will give grace upon grace to enable us to persevere, he will direct us and as we go back to the proverb, we have quoted already he will grant his favour upon our lives.
Peter then continues saying that if we are found in the place of humility, we can cast all our cares on God because he cares for us. This is such a comforting thought, that once we have humbled ourselves before God, we will have positioned ourselves into the place where we can know his constant care over us.
I wonder how often we have quoted just the words ‘casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you’, without realising that to do so we need first to humble ourselves before God.
The care and the comfort of God is amazing, and we all need it as we progress through our Christian life and walk with God, there are a couple of other Scriptures which encourage us concerning the care of God, first from Psalm 55:22, ‘Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved’, and secondly from Matthew 6 we have the section from verses 25 to 34 that remind us that God cares for us, for example verses 30-34, ‘But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.’
Can I suggest that the instruction to seek first the kingdom of God is closely linked to the need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.