~~I Peter 5:6-11~~"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.
"Be self-controlled & alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist Him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
"And the God of all grace, Who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you & make you strong, firm & steadfast. To Him be the power for ever & ever. Amen."
You know how you can read something in your Bible many times, & then...one day...a section just leaps out at you? Once again, that happened to me ... Why, do you suppose, Peter warned us to "be self-controlled & alert" JUST AFTER telling us to "humble [our]selves" & "cast all [our] cares upon Him..."?
One thing that occurs to me is that, even in hard times...when there should be nowhere else to go BUT to the Lord, we still try to 'do it our way' & dig our way out on our own. When, in reality, the FIRST place we should go in any situation should be on our knees before the Lord. Because if we think we dug ourselves out of the mire of our situation, then that can lead to pride. "Look what I did!" And pride, being the original sin (Is. 14:12-15), can cause us to believe that we are greater than we are; it makes us forget of all that we've been forgiven of.
And because of God's great love for us & the forgiveness of our sins that we have received, He even tops that & wants us to remember that we still need to cast our anxieties upon Him simply because He cares for us. He cares. He loves us. Like the best of all Fathers that He is.
But when we depend upon our own devices &, again, in His graciousness God blesses us w/success, THAT'S when we need to get a grip, back track & exercise a little self-control. Because in that state of pride is exactly where the devil is prowling around like a lion, just waiting to destroy us in our pride! He thrives on destroying God's precious children. He doesn't care if he can get you by completely turning away from God in your hard times & struggles ("Why are YOU doing this to me, God?!?!?!") or simply through apathy ("See? I can do this by myself. I'll leave the praying to whimps & children & people who need a crutch").
The devil is a liar! RESIST HIM!
We live in a fallen world. RESIST HIM!
Others are suffering right along with you. RESIST HIM!
You are NOT alone! RESIST HIM!
God IS on YOUR side! God loves YOU! He "will Himself restore you & make you strong, firm & steadfast"! In hard times draw near to God, humble yourself, stay alert...
He's there.
Blessings from Ohio...Kim<><
Good Morning Kim, Such a powerful and timely post. I think we so often lean to our human reasoning and fall upon doing things our way instead of seeking Him out. Thank you for reminding us today.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Noreen
oh girl, have you read my blog? Same verses! Maybe the Lord is trying to get my attention? I suppose so! Great post, full of wisdom and grace :) Hey, I'm back to blogging. If you are still wanting to do the word filled wednesday, I will make a new linky :)
ReplyDeleteMrs A ~ YES! Keep up the Word-Filled Wednesdays!
ReplyDeletelol ~ thanks for confirming what the Lord is telling me. Love ya!
Noreen ~ Bless you for your confirmation.
Blessings from Ohio...Kim<><
Amen, and amen! :)
ReplyDeleteWell said Kim!! Resist the devil and cling to Christ! Renounce pride and embrace humility. What joy can be ours if we only follow His words and trust His grace :-) Thanks for this timely post. blessings..Trish
ReplyDeleteYes, Amen! The Lord sees us through all our circumstances. Without Him we are nothing. And the devil would have us believe the opposite. He IS a liar! Thank you Kim, this is great teaching!
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