“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…” I Peter 5:6-9
About a year and a half ago, my family made the decision to keep a bloodhound we had rescued off the street. He had no collar, no identification and no tracking chip. No one responded to our many attempts to find a missing owner. It was not an easy decision- quite the opposite, it was an immense decision due to the immensity of the dog. When we got him, he weighed 85 pounds. Now, he easily weighs 100. Being a very large, extremely strong dog who likes to exercise, he requires a measure of strength of anyone who would walk him, or the experience presently turns into more of a drag than a walk. More than once, my youngest son, turning into a young teenager, has asked “let me try to walk him”- indeed I have allowed him to try. But it is important to note that when my son tries to walk him, I am always close at hand. Because inevitably, I will wind up asking “are you done yet?” and the answer will be an emphatic “YES.” There is wisdom in measuring your own strength against the size of the struggle and realizing you need the help offered to you. To live with anxiety is like refusing to relinquish the leash.
Most of us live with multiple anxieties. Sometimes the weight of care is absolutely crushing. It affects our waking hours and our sleep. Sometimes worry plagues us until we fall into depression or despair. These side-effects of anxiety can truly affect our spiritual lives in a negative way. Notice: Peter tells us to be sober because the Devil is prowling like a lion seeking someone to devour. We know the devil is unable to snatch any child of God out of His hands, so then what does Peter mean here? I am convinced, since Peter is talking about anxiety and trust, that the ‘devouring’ that Peter is talking about are the negative consequences of failing to let go of our anxiety: fear, mistrust of God, anger, stress, etc… If the devil knows he can’t have us, then the next best thing is to encourage us to be ineffective, frightened, and silent. It was no different in Peter’s day. He wrote this letter to the church at large, recognizing that many Christians were facing the very real threat of persecution. It is in this context, that Peter gives us his remedy to worry. He begins with “humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God…” Perhaps this seems like an odd way to start off a remedy for worry. But understand, the solution begins by recognizing our own weaknesses; we truly are NOT big enough to solve our problems. No one can solve problems like health, death, loss, sudden disaster, or ugly relational problems by themselves, because in each of these- indeed, in MOST of our problems- there is an element over which we have no control. Our problems ARE bigger than we are. Thus, Peter calls us to acknowledge our weakness before God. Why before God? Because while WE have no power to better our situation, the same is not true about God, who Peter says “at the proper time may exalt you.” Next, he describes another aspect of our act of humbling ourselves: “casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” An important part of our humbling ourselves is this ‘casting’ all of our anxieties on Him. The verb is an action verb: to ‘cast’ something is to heave it- to throw it. We are to recognize God’s far superior strength, and then to heave upon Him the burdens. Put into practical terms, it is the decision to trust that God will render aid. Having already done what we ought to do, we decide to put those things over which we have no control into His hands. It is the act of letting go of the leash. But how can we know that this kind of trust won’t come back to bite us? Peter tells us we cast our anxieties upon Him “because He cares for you.” Amazing as it is to our human brains, the God of creation- God Almighty, cares for us. The problem is that we often doubt this care, either because we got jaded when things didn’t go the way we hoped at some time in the past, or because we feel that our unworthiness will cause God to forgo any favors. Either way, our doubt is unwarranted. We need look no farther than the cross. At the cross, dear friend, we have proof of God’s care; in the atonement of Jesus Christ, God provided us something better than we could have asked for, and indeed something infinitely better than what we deserved. If God’s plan involves our ultimate redemption, then the cross should remind us that even when God doesn’t do what we want, He most certainly will render the aid we need. If the cross means that the sinless Son of God suffered physical torment, spiritual torment, and His Father’s wrath for my sins, then surely it means he does not withhold favor even though I much deserve that He should. Therefore, fellow worry-er, get in the habit of releasing the leash. Your Father is walking with you, and you can lean on his strength. He’s asking “Are you done yet?” So cast it on Him- this is what He wants.
Sealed By Grace 