Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
When you consider a person of strength, I wonder what image comes to your mind? A weightlifter, the head coach of a globally known athletic team, a high-powered businessperson, an influential politician, a University President or maybe the President of one of the G-7 countries. And when you think of personal strength, do you think of arm muscles or strength of character or their powerful position of influence or their popularity?
Again, we’re spending time with the apostle Peter as he writes his first letter. He rolls out his parchments and picks up his stylus so let’s watch as he writes: “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble’. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s powerful hand, that HE may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you!” (1 Peter 5:5-7)
I wonder if you’d agree that one of the most powerful people on the planet is the person whom God has raised up, strengthened and is protecting? All through history we see the difference it makes in a person’s life when God empowers them, when God raises them up, when God steps into their difficult situation, when God unleashes HIS mighty power into the challenge they are facing. It’s Moses and Pharaoh; (Exodus 14) it’s Joshua and Jericho; (Joshua 6) it’s Samuel at Mizpah; (1 Samuel 7) it’s David and Goliath; (1 Samuel 17); it’s Gideon and the Mideonites; (Judges 7) it’s what Kings Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 32) found when they stood vastly outnumbered by an army attacking Jerusalem. Did you notice that in EVERY case the humility of the man God empowered and protected was essential?
Never does God empower a prideful person so they can then claim they accomplished great things in their own power for their own fame and glory. That is a fundamental life principle in how God deals with humanity.
So, here’s the key question… have you and I learned that lesson and do we live it, or do we occasionally expect God to bless our pride?
In fact, please take careful note of Peter’s central statement: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble’. Have you spent much time in the powerful book of Proverbs in the Old Testament of the Bible? Proverbs contains some of the greatest words of wisdom written by the man God claims is perhaps the wisest man who ever lived. Over and over Solomon calls us to consider the dramatically different manner in which God engages with and responds to either PRIDE or HUMILITY in a person! Some time ago I found this short but very powerful statement buried in Isaiah 66:1,2: “This is what the LORD God says: ‘ Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool… This is the person I look on with favor: the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.” Oh my! Does that cut right to your heart, my friends?
If you hunger for God’s favor, God’s blessing, then look closely at your heart… humble or prideful; hard or contrite? And look closely at how you respond when your eyes see the Word of God, or when you hear it read? Do you tremble at the awe-inspiring Words of God?
So, if you are wanting God to lift you up, to strengthen you, to empower you, to protect you, to bless you… do you see God’s criteria? Humble in heart and contrite (repentant) in spirit and overwhelmed to actual trembling when you see or hear God’s Words! And then do you see God’s promise…“that HE may lift you up in due time.”
This does not mean God will elevate you to a powerful position, nor great popularity, but rather God will raise you up from the posture of humility, where you have prostrated yourself before Him, and God will empower you, embolden you, instruct you and guide you to walk before Him in the place and the way where He can greatly use you for HIS glory and to accomplish HIS purposes in our world! Did you get that? You might want to re-read that again! That’s what Joseph and Daniel and all those I mentioned earlier, experienced! Finally, have you noticed anxiety and even worry are prevalent in our world? Some folks battle that with pride, pretending they have all the answers, all the resources, all the power to do whatever they desire, but I’m calling us to recognize it is the power of the Holy Spirit of God, unleashed in normal folks like you and me, that will defeat anxiety, fear, and worry!
When you and I focus our hearts and minds on Jesus, on WHO He is and all HE has accomplished, and His unlimited power available to His people, then anxiety and fear and worry will melt away! Have you learned that?
All around the world today, my friends, are people like you and me who, like the first century Christians Peter was writing to, are surrounded by frightening things, by angry people, and by demonic forces trying to discourage and defeat us… but the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ is ready to strengthen His people today, just as He has for the past 2000 years. Do you believe that this weekend my friends?
Tomorrow, we’re going to dig more deeply into the next powerful verses in 1 Peter 5, that speak to us specifically about battling the dark kingdom with God’s power! For today, I call us to step into the weekend expecting to see God unleash His power and strength into His humble people, including you and me, and here’s a worship song to help us celebrate that!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 5:5-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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