1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble Yourself
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

1 Peter 5:6-7
New King James Version (NKJV)

6. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

7. casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

To humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God is to let go of our own abilities and surrender to God’s wisdom and purpose for our lives. It is to rest in the assurance of His great love and gentle persuasion.     

We strive unnecessarily to make things happen in our lives and in this panic for something to happen or change, we end up causing ourselves unnecessary stress.  

Things could be so much easier for us if we simply do what the Lord calls us to do.

God has made it very clear what pride does to His people.  Pride takes us out of God’s will,  unprotected and vulnerable to the enemy’s attack.   Pride causes us to believe that thinking about ourselves or praying for ourselves is wrong.   When we pray for ourselves we are surrendering to God and admitting we need Him;   to admit we need God is one of the most humbling things we can do. Prayer for oneself is just as important and necessary as praying for others.  If we choose to walk humbly before the Lord He keeps safe and able to step onward.  

James 4:10 (NKJV)

10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

God knows the importance of a humble heart. Casting our cares upon God is an attitude of  humility because we are trusting Him. To "cast one’s cares" is to throw them far from us with the ideal of putting them into God’s hands, so that we are not holding on to them. Worrying about things is the opposite of trusting God or casting our cares.  In other words we are believing God  will take care of the situation. This is humility. When we cast our cares upon the Lord we are giving God the problem and admitting our great need for His wisdom and direction. We bow to His strength and confess our profound need and inability.

This means that we must let God have full control in what happens and when it happens. If we are to humble ourselves before the Lord completely we must accept His timing in all things and allow Him to work out the details according to His plans and purposes. This is the appointed  time that God ordained for certain things to happen.  As we wait upon Him He promises to exalt or lift us up us in due time. We must choose to trust Him and His timing and believe Him.  God cares about us and everything He does in our lives is for our good and to draw us close to Him.

We must never be afraid of putting our lives and our cares into His very capable and caring hands.   This passage could easily read Lord, I cast my care upon you and trust you with the outcome and the timing and therefore bowing to your supreme wisdom and authority.

Challenge: In times you are waiting for something to happen and you feel anxious tell God, “I give you this problem,” and name the problem.  Thank Him for taking the issue and confess your need for Him.   Pray for yourself.  God’s wants us to pray for ourselves so we see our need for Him.  

God bless,

Marni 

Go on to: 1 Peter 5:8
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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.