1 Peter 5:5-7
5 In the same way, you younger men, be subject to the elders. And
all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.
The verb translated "humble yourselves" means that
we are the subject of action. It can
also be translated “Suffer yourselves to be humbled.” Therefore, God is one the doing the action…to
us. We are being humbled by Him. In our lives, we reach a point where God
needs to teach us another lesson in order for us to move forward in a way that
glorifies Him. In order for that to
happen, we have to be refined, which means another piece of our pride has to
die. God has to humble us so that we can
be used in a way that He desires. So, I
ask myself, wouldn’t I rather just submit to God’s authority over me and
receive His humility instead of always fighting against it and being humbled in
a way that I wouldn’t like? It will be
hard. It will be challenging. There will be days that I will have
successes, and there will be days that I will fail miserably. I have to keep moving forward and daily
submit to God’s refining process. In the
end, I will look back and be amazed at what He did in me and why He did it.
Now, in verse 7, the apostle explains to them that while
this humbling process is going on, they should cast all their care (not cares)
upon God. The word "care" is the translation of a Greek word which
means "anxiety" or "worry." The word "all" in the
Greek text has the idea, not of every worry that comes along, but the whole of
their worries. They are to cast upon God the whole of their worries, that is,
come to the place where they resolve to cast the whole of their future worries
upon Him, and the result will be that when those things that would otherwise
worry them come up, they will not worry. To put it simply, when I submit to God’s
authority, discipline, and direction in my life, and I trust His direction, I
shouldn’t have a care, anxiety, or worry.
The reason I worry is because I begin to doubt God’s process and
direction. I think that I can handle the
situation better than God can, which is pride, and that brings us back to the
fact that God’s resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Now, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t make
plans and use wisdom with regards to our decision’s about the future. When God alters our plans for what we thought
our future was going to be, we have to humble ourselves, and cast all our “cares”
about what His new direction is, on Him.
Trust His process!
The key to all of this is to live in the moment that God
gives us. I can’t worry about next
month, or next week, or the next day, or the next hour or minute. I have to live in the moment that God is
currently giving me. As I write these
words, I have thoughts about what I have to do next, or when I get home, or this
weekend. Then, I start thinking about
what decisions, compromises or obstacles I will have to make or endure to get
these things accomplished. Let me give
you an example…when I get off work and go home, I look forward to 8:30 p.m.
when 4 out of my 5 children are in bed. At
8:30, I finally get to relax, lay on my bed with my wife, and watch a show or
catch up with each other’s day. Many
times, I make decisions that expedite that process at the expense of my
children’s happiness. The other night,
all the kids were outside having fun together, which is a luxury with having that
many kids. Instead of letting them play
a little longer, which would’ve made them miss their bedtimes, I called a couple
of them in so they could get clean and get ready for bed. Now, they were a little disappointed that
they had to come in, but it didn’t make them hate me, nor did they give me a
hard time. However, it was out of a
purely selfish motive that I called them inside. I could’ve justified it to myself by thinking
that they had school and they needed their sleep, but it was because I wanted
the evening process to begin so that I could have “my” time. What I should’ve done is allow them to enjoy
being with their siblings. Those times
are when memories are made. It is then
that I realize that pride is a terrible beast to slay. It is a battle most, if not all, of us face
every day. I believe that is why Jesus
reminded us to take up our cross daily to follow Him. I can’t let tomorrow’s worries determine how I
live right now.
This journey that God has called us to is a difficult one, and
not for the faint of heart. Each day,
God requires us to die a little more to ourselves. If we are truly seeking after Him, and
desiring holiness above comfort, and purity above justification, then we have
quite the challenge ahead of us.
However, as I have travelled down this road (reluctantly at times), I
have determined that God has yet to disappoint me with the outcome of His
refining process. During the process, I
have lots of questions, frustrations and criticism, but when I submit, I begin
to see what He is really trying to accomplish…more of Him and less of me. He truly does care about me!
I must give credit to my friends Jason and Darren, and to
the Holman Commentary on 1 Peter for helping me with putting some of these thoughts
together.
Be God's!
