Allow Yourselves To Be Humbled By God- {1 Peter 5:6}

“ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BE HUMBLED BY GOD…”-{1 Peter 5:6}

“Humble yourselves.” It is written in the “passive voice” and means “Allow yourselves to be humbled by God.”-{1 Peter 5:6}. It is to say -Submit to the humbling process of God. And there is a promise, “And He will lift you up in the proper time.” The believers were suffering, and there is no trial that we go trough where this promise is not in effect as we allow the humbling process of God to work in our lives, as we submit to Him and He works to conform us to the image of Christ, molding and working circumstances, His Word, by His Spirit to “conform us to the image of Christ… that Christ be formed in us.” He promises He will lift us up, exalt us.

THE PROMISE;

There is light at the end of the tunnel for those who allow the humbling process of God in their lives, “at the proper time.” He holds and controls the thermostat of trials, sufferings and in His time He will lift us up. In 1 Peter 5:10 he shows this when he says,”After you have suffered for a little while.” Here God has set His time limit,and then we see How He “Lifts us up… in the proper time,” Note the four virtues He develops as a result of suffering, “He Himself perfects, confirms, strengthens, establish’s”  The verse reads, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

Paul demonstrates the humbling process of God in his life. He had great revelations and God gives him a “thorn” and he says the reason was to…humble him, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, FOR THIS REASON, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!“-{ 2 Cor 12:7}. Note twice he says,”to keep me from exalting myself!” Paul was not above the temptation to pride.

The “thorn” was given to keep him humble… and his response?

” Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

HIS RESPONSE TO THE HUMBLING BY GOD;

His response to the humbling process, was not bitterness, or fight it but to submit and see that God was working “All things” ….for good… his spiritual good… which meant dependence upon Him, and that His power was unleashed through Paul’s weakness and dependency upon Him… and the evidence he accepted and submitted to it was …. in verse 10…”for Christ’s sake I DELIGHT in weakness, insults in hardships, in difficulties..” for these were all part of the humbling process….”for when I am weak then I am strong!”

Note the word “For,” which gives the explanation, reasoning for his “Delighting, Rejoicing” and enduring these, embracing them gladly, not for pains sake, but FOR …CHRIST SAKE! His motivation was CHRIST! and also he uses the word “FOR” a second time in the passage, He did it because he KNEW what was happening and the way to power  was “FOR when I am weak then I am strong.” His weakness did not disqualify him but indeed qualified him for the unleashing of Christ’s power in his life and strengthening him! Why submit to the humbling process, gladly? Not for pain’s sake but for CHRIST’S SAKE! And because of what you know, you are not IGNORANT, but INFORMED from His Word what He is doing! How often we want to be “strong” in our own strength, but God’s way is through weakness acknowledged and trusting Him He makes strong through His power and sufficiency! When He says My grace is Sufficient,” the word means “adequate, enough” with the implication to “SATISFY!” His Grace SATISFIES US! The way it is written grammatically is “Sufficient for you is the Grace of Me!” He Himself is The Grace, and He is enough and He satisfies and there for He meets me and you with Sufficient grace to empower us in the painful trials or “thorn” we may have. And HE enables us to boast, glory, delight because  my weakness, your weakness qualifies us when placed in His hands for His power! “FOR” all he had and was going through…were all part of the humbling process….”for when I am weak then I am strong!” His response to them all was… Christ GLORYING and Christ DEPENDENCE the result.

WEANING AND LEANING;

In 2 Cor 1:9 he also shows us “Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not RELY on ourselves BUT ON GOD, who raises the dead.”

God’s goal in the matter was to WEAN Paul and his companions from self dependency to God dependency. At times He in conforming us to Himself uses circumstances, difficulties to WEAN us from to LEAN on Him and conform us to His image!

THE PROCESS CAN BE PAINFUL AND OFTEN IS;

The word “Suffer” in 1 Peter is used approx 14 times  and it’s forms, and indeed what the evil one was using against the believers God was using for good in conforming the believers to His image, TESTIFYING TO THEM of His sufficiency and THROUGH them.- { Read 1 Peter 3:16}.

Allow the Humbling process of God in your lives… and know that these trials, difficulties, sufferings are in His hands and the promise in His time,” at the proper time,” He will lift you up… there is an end to them, and in the end He lifts you up in honor! We can often despair, or chaff against His timing and try and take things into our own hands as Abraham and Sarah did in trying to speed up the process of having an heir and they took it into their own hands and out of God’s hands – and that did not go well!!! -{Read Genesis 16:1-6}. In the meantime he says “Clothe yourselves with humility one to another.” The word “clothe” was used to speak of a slaves apron that he or she put on and  wrapped themselves in to keep their clothing underneath clean. The apron was identifiable as a slaves and came to be known as “a humble service,” so what to do while you are waiting for Him to “lift you up in the proper time?” Be identifiable as the LORD’S  by your “humble service,” towards others.  Keep serving one another humbly!  Keep humbling yourself under the Mighty Hand of God, Keep casting your anxieties upon Him, keep remembering “He cares for you!” -{Read 1 Peter 5:5-6}

AGGRESSIVE FAITH;

In the process of His humbling we must maintain an attitude of aggressive faith, aggressive because we have to fight against ourselves, our feelings, our stubbornness to want things our way and God to be in submission to our will rather than us in submission to His. And it is often in the humbling process these sinful attitudes and pride come to the front where we see them and by His grace own them, that the trials, difficulties, suffering have not caused but revealed to us what is in us! And so we humble ourselves before Him asking Him to forgive us and save us from ourselves. Not salvation for our souls, which He already has done… but saving us as in continuing to conform us to the image of Christ.

WORKING AWAY PURPOSELY;

I once heard a story of a sculptor who was carving a huge rock of an angel. Someone asked him “What was he doing and why was he chipping away and knocking off huge portions of the rock?” He responded that there was an angel in there he was trying to get out So, he was chipping and cutting off everything that did not look like an angel!

And, like a sculptor as we submit to the humbling process, God uses His Word, by His Spirit, and our difficulties, trials, sufferings, circumstances and others, not to destroy us but to develop us and conform us to make us more like the LORD Jesus in our thinking, attitudes, motivations and choices.. and display us to others. -{-Read 1 Peter 3:15-16}! Like the sculptor God is working away Purposely {Read Phil 2:13 nlt}. He is chipping away at all that is not like Christ in our character…to make us like Christ… and that He will…. and He will lift you up in His time.

THE FIGHT TO BELIEVE;

Submitting to the humbling process of God, can be, and is often painful, “But God…” purposes spiritual fruit from it. He holds the chisel and He is working careingly, compassionately and purposely for our good, His honor and a testimony to others. And remember the promise in the passage as we allow the humbling of ourselves to God, He” will lift us up,” He will take and carry all our anxieties as we cast them on Him because… “HE cares for you” and me! In the process of difficulties, the temptation comes, such as “He does not care for you…” faith looks to Him and His Word and walks not by what you feel or don’t feel or by what you see or don’t see… but by what He DECLARES in His Word…And He does “care for you.” The cross the Evidence, not to mention how you have tasted His goodness in so many, many ways!-{Read 1 Peter 2:3}

“LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL”-

There is “Light” at the end of “the tunnel” and it is Him.”I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”-{John 8:12}. There is “Light” for the Journey and it is Him and through His Word!. “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”-{Psalm 119:105}

PERSONAL APPLICATION FOR ALL BELIEVERS;

“Allow yourselves to be humbled by God.” Is not only written in the “passive voice” but is a verb, and a command!

IT IS SO SO much easier to read about someones trials in a biography for an example or from the pages of Scripture but to go through it we often wish we could skip it, “But God…” is working for our good, His honor and “HE cares for you!” Remember that, hold onto these precious words He gave to a former generation in their sufferings, and at “the proper time… He will “lift you up” and out of these difficulties!

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”-{ 1 Peter 5:6}