Because He Cares For Us

Peter takes the opportunity to express his heart as he shares important words of wisdom in First Peter 5: 6,7. Please read this passage carefully and see how it applies to you this day:

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you."

I believe that humility is a discipline in one's life. I say that because it is so easy to do something that is wonderful, receive marvelous reviews and immediately find ourselves "puffed up" as a result of the complements. Humility means "the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc." Humility is synonymous with lowliness, meekness, and submissiveness. That "puffed up" feeling is the exact opposite of humility which is better known as "pride in one's self achievements".

Our ministry, as mentioned in this passage operates "under the mighty hand of God..." and therefore places the pride or boastfulness of achievement in the "oneness" of God. When Jesus walked with the disciples He explained that "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work" (Jn. 4:34). And Jesus fully expected that His exaltation would come, "at the proper time".

Also here, Peter implores us to "cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us." I think that by using all of my fingers and toes, I can count the number of people on this earth that I know "care for me" and I could possibly have some "digits" left over. That doesn't mean that there are NOT a lot of people who care for me but Peter is telling us that this "care of the Father" is not earthly and it took sending His Son, Jesus Christ to the cross at Calvary, to show how much He did, indeed care for us. So our anxiety, our worry, our concerns about day to day trivial matters, are very low on God's list of concerns for us. He struck ONE BLOW here on earth, using His own Son, to fulfill all of His concerns for us.

So Peter simply says, "you can rest in this"! I rest in this! I know that in the middle of a storm, that I need not be anxious because "HE CARES FOR ME"!

Dave