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1 Peter 5:5b-7 - Humility and Prayer.

1 Peter 5:5b-7 - Humility and Prayer.

1 Peter 5:5b-7 (NIV) "God opposes the proud but gives grace to 
the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty 
hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on 
him because he cares for you. 

1 Peter 5:5b-7 (CWR) As the Scriptures say, "God can't do much 
with proud people, but He gives grace to the humble." 6 So stay 
humble in the sight of our mighty God, and in His own good time, He 
will lift you up. 7 Leave all your anxieties and worries with Him 
because He cares for you. 

What Does It Mean - Humility?
   The dictionary defines it thus: The quality or state of being 
humble in spirit; freedom from pride or arrogance. Augustine says, "It 
was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes 
men as angels." Again, he says, "Should you ask me, What is the 
first thing in religion? I should reply, The first, second, and third 
thing therein - nay all- is humility." Ben Franklin said, "After 
crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser." Jonathan Edwards 
"Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility." 
"The fullest and best ears of corn hang lowest toward the ground." 
(Edward Reynolds) "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his 
humility." (Ruskin) "Humility is the Christian's greatest honor; and the 
higher men climb, the further they are from heaven." (Jane Porter) 
"True humility makes way for Christ, and throws the soul at His feet." 
(J. Mason) Yokefellow Bible Study 

Carrying your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself 
shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes 
humility, however, to recognize that God cares, to admit your need, and to 
let others in God's family help you. Sometimes we think that 
struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But 
when we turn to God in repentance, he will bear the weight even of 
those struggles. Letting God have your anxieties calls for action, not 
passivity. Don't submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls 
circumstances. [Life Application SB] 

A Flash Of Lightning
   Henri Nouwen confessed that when he met with Mother Teresa of 
Calcutta, he started explaining all his problems as soon as they sat down. 
For ten minutes, he tried to convince her how complicated they were. 
 
   When he was finally quiet, Mother Teresa said, "Well, when 
you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything you 
know is wrong ... you will be fine."  
   Nouwen's response? "I realized, suddenly, that she had 
punctured my big balloon of complex self-complaints and pointed me far 
beyond myself to the place of real healing. I had raised a question 
from below and she had given an answer from above - from God's place 
and not the place of my complaints. Mother Teresa's answer was like 
a flash of lightning in my darkness."  
   Our setbacks, struggles, doubts, and insecurities can enmesh 
us in severe complications. We want solutions. We want practical 
answers. A simple answer "from above" often strikes us as irrelevant to 
the problem, as it did at first to Henri Nouwen. After all, he was 
an Ivy League professor and understood the complications of life. 
Yet many problems cannot be "solved," and other times the solution 
is in our seeing the maze of difficulties through God's eyes.  
   Nouwen advises, "Your life, my life, is given graciously by 
God. Our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken 
with Jesus as our friend and finest guide."  
   Lord Jesus, my need for you to guide me is greater than ever. 
My journey seems a thicket of troubles, with no pathway out. Please 
grant me your perspective and your confidence as you lead me today.  
   Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the 
right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and 
cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7, NLT [The One Year 
Book of Encouragement by Harold Myra] 

Casting Your Cares
   As you've no doubt discovered, becoming a Christian does not 
make your problems go away. But it does give you an Advocate to whom 
you can take every concern. The Christians Peter addressed were 
facing persecution. They did not know whom they could trust; a friend, 
a neighbor, or even a family member could betray them, resulting 
in suffering and even death. But Peter had walked with the risen 
Christ, and he had personally experienced the love that Jesus had for 
His followers. He knew that Christ was in control, capable of 
handling every trial and that He wanted to do so as an expression of His 
love.  
   Casting our cares is a choice. It means consciously handing 
over our anxiety to Christ and allowing Him to carry the weight of 
our problems. At times this is the most difficult part of trusting 
God! We don't like turning over the responsibility for our problems. 
We have been taught that self-reliance is good and praiseworthy. We 
may even enjoy worrying. Yet if we are to be freed from the burden 
of our concerns, we must choose to cast them into the strong hands 
of our Father.  
   Peter does not distinguish between little cares and big 
cares. God does not differentiate between problems we should handle on 
our own and God-sized needs. He asks us to turn them all over to 
Him. One of our greatest errors is to assume we can deal with 
something ourselves, only to discover that we really can't.  
   God sees you as His frail child, burdened with a load that 
surpasses your strength. He stands prepared to take your load and to carry 
it for you. Will you let Him? [Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry 
and Richard Blackaby] 

Worry is rooted in pride
   Do you constantly worry? Peter tells persecuted believers 
(who have a whole lot to worry about), "Humble yourselves...casting all 
of your anxieties on him, because He cares for you" (1 Pet. 
5:6-7). 
   Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair, giving you 
something to do, but never taking you anywhere. Like a hamster in a cage, 
you go round and round with a lot of activity and anxiety, but never 
making progress. There is a healthy fear that gets us out of danger. 
But there is also an unhealthy fear, which leads us into anxiety, 
which is a lingering, constant fear that paralyzes us. 
   If fear is a thunderstorm, Tim Keller says, anxiety is a 
constant cold drizzle. And why are we like that? Sometimes it could be a 
medical problem, but usually it is pride and self-sufficiency. Constant 
worry is "rooted in arrogance that assumes, I know the way my life has 
to go, and God's not getting it right."  
   The main verb in 1 Pet. 5 (a command) is to "humble 
yourselves." Whenever there is a verb followed by a participle, (which means 
it ends in "ing"), the author is telling you how to accomplish the 
command. So here he says the way to humble yourself is by praying your 
anxieties. In other words, don't try to vent your worries to people or 
suppress them and carry them on your own, but pray them. 
   So if it is a sign of humility to cast all of our cares on 
the Lord, it is conversely a sign of pride when you worry. Worry 
denies the care of a sovereign God. One author writes, "Worry is sin 
because it denies the wisdom of God; it says that He doesn't know what 
He's doing. It denies the love of God; it says He does not care. And 
it denies the power of God; it says that He isn't able to deliver 
me from whatever is causing me to worry." Worry is practical 
atheism. Worry gives you delusions of strength and keeps God from working 
on your behalf. 
   Worship and worry cannot stay in the same heart.
   The gospel of Christ says that Christ has carried our 
ultimate trouble...paying for our sins...so we can now carry our smaller 
anxieties to Him. If He went that far to show us His care and love for us, 
will He not care for us in every other way? 
http://www.onelivinghope.com/worry-is-rooted-in-pride/ 

St. Augustine once said (later expounded by Luther) that our 
major dilemma is that our self is "turned in on itself." Apart from 
grace, we are, as CS Lewis says, not creatures who need improvement, 
but rebels who need to lay down his arms. Our self-sufficiency 
causes us to be prayerless, independent, living worry-filled lives. Yet 
God's grace comes to the self-sufficient, like to Jacob in Gen. 32. In 
an amazing wrestling match, God becomes weak, takes His weight off 
and loses, to let Jacob win. This leaves him with a limp to always 
remind him of the scars of grace. Ultimately, on the cross, God became 
weak, so He can win over our self-sufficiency. Jesus got the full 
weight of God's wrath and justice, crushed underneath, so we just get 
the blows of grace that leave us no longer with a "swag" or a strut, 
but with a perpetual limp. http://www.onelivinghope.com/2012/07/ 

Through conflict the spiritual life is strengthened. Trials well 
borne will develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual 
graces. The perfect fruit of faith, meekness, and love often matures 
best amid storm clouds and darkness.  {COL 61.1}  

The brook would lose its song if the rocks were removed. [Your 
Daily Walk SB] 

There are no roses without thorns, nor victories without 
battles. [Daily Walk Bible] 

EXCELLENT VIDEO SERIES ON EXPERIENCING GOD:


http://sda.biggytv.com/watch/Revive!_-_Dwight_Nelson:_Experiencing_Gods_Grace/revive/  

BIBLE PROPHECY SERIES ON REVELATION: 

http://revelationtodaylive.com/live

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT:

Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies: http://www.liftingupjesus.net/

Grace Notes: http://www.e-gracenotes.org/index.php

Excellent Spiritual Resource Site: 
http://www.christianlifemediacenter.com/   

More Spiritual Resources: http://www.aBible.com