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.
One of the great commands in all the Scriptures. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you.
Humility is the foundation for our personal walk with God. Humility before God. Be sober-minded; be watchful because the devil is on the prowl seeking to destroy us. Resist him, be firm in your faith. This sequence begins with humility before God. That is the foundation for everything else. It provides for us the context and conviction to cast all our anxieties on Him who cares for us. The reason is that we have an adversary, the devil, who will do everything he can to devour us.
Humility is the grounds for casting all our cares on God. The key element not mentioned (out loud) in this text is the issue of trust. The person who cannot trust God will not “cast their cares to God” because if they are unsure, or they cannot trust God with their anxieties then they become their own best advocate to address them. The problem is that we are completely unprepared to deal with our anxieties, otherwise we would not have any anxieties in the first place.
Humility is the basis for resisting the devil. If we humble ourselves before God and cast our anxieties on Him, then we have the spiritual stability to resist the devil. However, there is an inherent danger in this process if we fail to do understand the importance of this sequence. If we mix up these steps, fail to embrace them or reverse them, we will be spiritually vulnerable. For example, if we try casting our cares on Him without humbling ourselves under His hand, we will fail at resisting the devil. If we fail at the foundational things, we will end up resisting God and submitting to the devil.
Humility is the promise that God will exalt us at the proper time. Wow! What a staggering promise. But what a powerful hope. Humility is not a skill set nor is it a spiritual gift. It is a character trait reflecting the presence of the Holy Spirit. God will ultimately exalt us for walking with humility with Him.
As we launch another year, one of the most critical and important postures we need to embrace is humility before God. This is the basis for dealing with the chaos in the world, resisting the devil, and the pathway that the Lord Himself will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us in Him. I encourage you to embrace it deeply.
Pastor Brad
