Because He Cares for You

 

Just thinking today about how much God cares
for us all! Grateful for long-term friendships. 

Scripture:

1Pet. 5:⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

Observation:

In the Greek verse six and verse seven are all one sentence so, I probably should not have broken them up. Verse six was about humility and verse seven about casting all our care or anxiety upon God. Interesting that humility and casting anxiety upon God go together. Maybe it’s a lack of humility, or dependence upon God, that keeps us filled with worry. Ultimately it rests upon whether we believe that God cares for us or not. Peter was certainly about the Lord’s care.

Peter sees discipline and alertness as virtues. This may have come from his personal failures. Because of his own inability to stay alert and disciplined he felt like he failed Jesus. This was a lesson that he learned the hard way and was wanting to help others because he knew that spiritual warfare was real. The enemy — the deceiver — is prowling around and is very willing to drag people with him and to a place where they are blinded from the truth. We are to resist the evil one, standing firm in the faith. In this, we are not alone, but siblings in the kingdom of God stand together, no matter where they may find themselves geographically. 

Application:

Peter is pretty clear about the fact that God cares for you and Satan does not. If we are not  putting our trust in God, then we are leaning into the deceit of Satan. The enemy has always been cunning, tricking God’s people into dependence upon themselves. This is not where God wants us to live. 

Throughout this entire letter we have seen how God has lovingly cared for his people. Jesus, in his humility, came to earth and provided a pathway for us to become partakers of the Divine Nature. That’s more incredible than we can even imagine and there is more strength available to God’s people than what the enemy can throw our way. There truly is a battle between good and evil and we are in the middle. The good news is that the God of all creation cares for you and me! 

Because God cares for us he wants us to bring to him all our anxiety. We live in an anxiety-ridden world. Throughout this COVID season depression and anxiety are on the rise. There is so much about what’s happening around us that we don’t understand and yet, we are told to simply trust in God. That may seem a little naive, and yet, aren’t we supposed to have child-like trust in God for what we are facing in our lives? 

If I were trusting in the world around me for my life and my future, I probably would be anxious. Instead, I choose to see the hand of God that continues to be at work in and through us. We are participants in an eternal journey and this season is just a blip on the screen. The enemy would like to distract us from the beautiful vision of the kingdom of God. We have to look beyond our circumstances and see life with eternity in mind. I think that’s what Peter was doing, and he knew he had to encourage the first century church to do the same. I’m not sure that life is much different today and that’s why it’s so important to remember that God cares for you!

Prayer:

Lord, may I cast my anxiety upon you today, and every day.  Amen.