Anxiety - Pt 4

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. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV).

We started with the subject of anxiety and quickly moved with the apostle to the need to humility. The conundrum is how humility creates strength. Further, how can humility take our anxiety away? We can see the answer easily if we start with examples of humility. For example, when you've made a mistake, admitting it and saying you're sorry; or, when you are weak or sick or inadequate for a task, not being too proud to ask for help. It means doing some ordinary jobs and spending time with ordinary people and being indifferent to accolades. We can certain that humility in all its forms is the risk of losing face. Humility is the risk of not being noticed, not being appreciated, not being praised, and not being rewarded. Lowliness runs the obvious risk of being looked down on. And, being looked down on is painful. Being unnoticed and unappreciated is painful. And the command to be humble under God and to be clothed with humility toward each other makes us anxious. So if we are really going to be humble, we have to solve this anxiety problem. If we are going to have the courage of humility and the boldness of lowliness, someone is going to have to take our anxiety away. That’s the point Peter makes in our reading. Note the connection between humbling yourself under God's mighty hand (v. 6) and casting your anxiety on God (v. 7). God is the focus in both verses, and the connection is this: before you can put yourself humbly under God's mighty hand, you have to put your anxiety confidently in God's mighty hand. There is a fearful cowering under the mighty hand of God for the rebellious and the proud. But that is not what Peter is calling for. The humility Peter commands under God's hand is the peaceful, confident humility that comes because we have cast our anxiety on God with the confidence that he cares for us. I love these two images side by side: humbled and lowly under the mighty hand of an infinitely holy and powerful God, and confident and peaceful because that very God cares for us and carries our anxiety. Before you bow down and step under him, cast the burden of your anxiety on him! That’s the essence of the Gospel!