1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] 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. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
And what are we to do when it all hurts? Peter admonishes us to humble ourselves. Well friends when you've feeling humiliation you can't risk confusing that with humbling.
Humiliation is quite simply of the world, the flesh and the devil. Humiliation uses the world's standards to judge. Humiliation springs from deep in the murky recesses of our not yet completely pure hearts. Humiliation is an affliction from Satan fed by the world and enhanced by the flesh. Humiliation is sin - insidious sin that Satan wants to inject into our lives to blind us to God's grace and mercy and to keep us from humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand. Now - even that's a toughie.
Humbling ourselves - why did Peter have to say it that way? Have you ever tried to humble yourself? It is not easy and lasts but a moment. I find that when I kneel before God to humble myself all my flesh jumps to the front with all these great ideas about what I can to to relief the suffering. If not that then my mind runs to all the ways God ought to fix the situation. Humbling yourself is really really hard.
And yet, under Gods mighty hand, we are told to do just that. I don' t know about you but I think Peter knew well that humbling one's self was something one has to do over and over and over and over and ---well you get my point.
Humbling one's self is not some complex process - it's a hard one but not complex. You simply (as a friend of mine told me) sit quietly and ask God to do the work. As He works and the flesh rebels - stay calm - keep asking - repent of sins that aise in your mind - rebuke those self-driven thoughts - reject all those great ideas of yours. My friend would simply go into the woods near his house, sit on a log and pray, "Lord, it's Travis," and then sit quietly waiting for his mind and heart to slow down and then he would begin to talk.
The, God's mighty hand, part of the passage gives me pause. Does it mean that God is pressing me down with His hand or does it mean that His mighty hand is covering me, protecting me? I would go with the latter although my flesh votes for the former. In suffering it is hard to sense God's hand protecting you and easy to think that He is crushing you. But does God really crush His people. Even Job in all his sufferiing was not crushed and God's mighty hand was protecting him (see Job 1 and 2). In all Job suffered God would allow Satan to only go so far and no further.
So it is, I believe, with us. His mighty hand covers us -protecting us from anything that would crush and drive us from Him.
But we have to humble ourselves and I believe that means that we do what we can do and leave the rest to Him. I've said many times, "When you have done all you can the rest is for God to do." Of course we have to have a good definition of "all we can."
Now having said that I have to say that what we do - what we can do must be what he would have us do. This quite simply demands three things of us. First we must pray and I mean PRAY - It's not easy to pray when we are suffering but we have to - I've had to - fight through all the distractions to just pray. But we must - well - demand that He do what only He can as we go about what we can do. We need Him to both lead us and stop us. We need to do what is in His will and not do that which is not - and this takes prayer!
Second, to humble ourselves under His hand, we must be in His word. Here we will find everything we need to fill ourselves with a greater understanding of His will and His ways. This is critical! We must fill our minds with His truth - NOT just the usual happy verses but with the whole of His word. We need to read the prophets to see any wayward way in ourselves. We need to read the first five books to see His hand in the lives of real people who really suffered. We need to read the Psalms and poetry to have our minds and hearts schooled in prayer and filled with hope. We need to be reading the Gospels where we see God in the midst of real people as a real man. We need the Epistles so that we understand, appreciate and live out the faith that saves us.
Third, to humble ourselve s we need the Body of Christ. Yeah, I know, the first thing we think about is being embarrassed, being a burden, being a pain, being, "That guy." But it is through the Body of Christ that God works in the lives of His people and so we must partake of God's provision. All too often when we are suffering we want to lie and act as if everything was OK when it is anything but. When we do this we lie - it's just that simple. And that lie will crush us and keep us from God's providence through His Body.
Humility and humiliation - the first is a mercy the second a sin. The first is of God, the second is of the world, the flesh and the devil. The first will help you the second will harm you. The first is life the second is death. Finally the first will relieve the second.
Just a little while ago I was talking ith a guy I know from Caribou and we were sharing what ws going on in our lives. I shared mine and Patti's situation and our concerns. As we continued talking he said, "Wait a minute." Then he took $5 form his walllet and said, "The least I can do is buy you a cup of coffee." Humiliating? It should have been and almost was but God comforted my heart and I accepted the money. Am I struggling with this even? You bet I am. It was embarassing and humiliating and --but it really was God's mercy and grace in a moment of time that I should cherish and take great comfort in - even if it is hard.
Humble yourself -- please.
And yet, under Gods mighty hand, we are told to do just that. I don' t know about you but I think Peter knew well that humbling one's self was something one has to do over and over and over and over and ---well you get my point.
Humbling one's self is not some complex process - it's a hard one but not complex. You simply (as a friend of mine told me) sit quietly and ask God to do the work. As He works and the flesh rebels - stay calm - keep asking - repent of sins that aise in your mind - rebuke those self-driven thoughts - reject all those great ideas of yours. My friend would simply go into the woods near his house, sit on a log and pray, "Lord, it's Travis," and then sit quietly waiting for his mind and heart to slow down and then he would begin to talk.
The, God's mighty hand, part of the passage gives me pause. Does it mean that God is pressing me down with His hand or does it mean that His mighty hand is covering me, protecting me? I would go with the latter although my flesh votes for the former. In suffering it is hard to sense God's hand protecting you and easy to think that He is crushing you. But does God really crush His people. Even Job in all his sufferiing was not crushed and God's mighty hand was protecting him (see Job 1 and 2). In all Job suffered God would allow Satan to only go so far and no further.
So it is, I believe, with us. His mighty hand covers us -protecting us from anything that would crush and drive us from Him.
But we have to humble ourselves and I believe that means that we do what we can do and leave the rest to Him. I've said many times, "When you have done all you can the rest is for God to do." Of course we have to have a good definition of "all we can."
Now having said that I have to say that what we do - what we can do must be what he would have us do. This quite simply demands three things of us. First we must pray and I mean PRAY - It's not easy to pray when we are suffering but we have to - I've had to - fight through all the distractions to just pray. But we must - well - demand that He do what only He can as we go about what we can do. We need Him to both lead us and stop us. We need to do what is in His will and not do that which is not - and this takes prayer!
Second, to humble ourselves under His hand, we must be in His word. Here we will find everything we need to fill ourselves with a greater understanding of His will and His ways. This is critical! We must fill our minds with His truth - NOT just the usual happy verses but with the whole of His word. We need to read the prophets to see any wayward way in ourselves. We need to read the first five books to see His hand in the lives of real people who really suffered. We need to read the Psalms and poetry to have our minds and hearts schooled in prayer and filled with hope. We need to be reading the Gospels where we see God in the midst of real people as a real man. We need the Epistles so that we understand, appreciate and live out the faith that saves us.
Third, to humble ourselve s we need the Body of Christ. Yeah, I know, the first thing we think about is being embarrassed, being a burden, being a pain, being, "That guy." But it is through the Body of Christ that God works in the lives of His people and so we must partake of God's provision. All too often when we are suffering we want to lie and act as if everything was OK when it is anything but. When we do this we lie - it's just that simple. And that lie will crush us and keep us from God's providence through His Body.
Humility and humiliation - the first is a mercy the second a sin. The first is of God, the second is of the world, the flesh and the devil. The first will help you the second will harm you. The first is life the second is death. Finally the first will relieve the second.
Just a little while ago I was talking ith a guy I know from Caribou and we were sharing what ws going on in our lives. I shared mine and Patti's situation and our concerns. As we continued talking he said, "Wait a minute." Then he took $5 form his walllet and said, "The least I can do is buy you a cup of coffee." Humiliating? It should have been and almost was but God comforted my heart and I accepted the money. Am I struggling with this even? You bet I am. It was embarassing and humiliating and --but it really was God's mercy and grace in a moment of time that I should cherish and take great comfort in - even if it is hard.
Humble yourself -- please.
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