Cast Your Anxiety on Him

 January 16, 2024

Tuesday

1 Peter 5:6–7 (NASB 2020) 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.

When I read this scripture, I see the relationship between pride and anxiety. Pride comes from thinking I am big enough for any problem. I can handle it. I can do it. That will be challenged by things that I can’t control.

I can study but I can’t control what questions I will face on the test. I can work out and eat right but that is no guarantee I won’t get cancer. When those things happen that seem to promise my demise, I get anxious. Otherwise, I would have to admit I wasn’t in control and recognize that God is.

God has a time that He will exalt me if I give Him the reason to exalt me. God is opposed to proud, but gives grace to humble. Since God is always the same, He cannot exalt me in my pride. Thus, I humble myself to give God the opportunity to exalt me.

Humbling myself means that I have cast my anxieties upon Him. Casting an anxiety upon God means that I still take responsibility to act but that action is how He leads me. The solution is not up to me. The compliance with His will is.

I can do this because I know He loves me. The actions God causes me to take may not seem to be in my best interest but His love proves that they are. This is something I should have learned a long time ago. 

God led me to the church I serve right now even though they didn’t pay as well as the last church. It didn’t matter. God has overwhelmingly showed His love to me by the way this church loves me. He has shown that He loves me by providing for every need. He has shown that He loves me by His presence.

There is a negative side to being full of yourself. Twice I went to churches that paid me more than I was making. This isn’t a negative on those churches for they treated me well, but I have only known God’s intimate presence in obedience rather that what I wanted to do. I have had anxiety when I did what I wanted.

So, I thank God that He loves me. I thank God that He has control. I thank God that I am His servant. I thank God for His peace.