“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”-{1 Peter 5:6-7}.
In the midst of times of “distress”-{1 Peter 1:6} times of “fiery trials,” -{1:7]; Suffering, slander, hostility, Peter tells the suffering ones that they can cast all of their anxiety on the LORD, and gives them the reason why, “Because He CARES for you.”
When is it that we are tempted to submit to the temptation that God does not care for us? When times are difficult, when circumstances are painful, when life is hard and when others are treating you unfairly. The evil one seeks to inject thoughts that if embraced end up slandering God, doubting His care and dishonoring Him. Difficulties are part of life, Peter told the believers, “Do not be Surprised,…” the word means “shocked.” “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”-{1 Peter 4:12}. He says not to be “shocked,” as though it is a strange thing were happening, and he tells them it is for their “testing.” Suffering is part of life including a follower of Christ, and at times for being identified with Christ and for Christ, and when these difficulties and others come into our lives and we see no delivery, we can succumb to the demonic doubt concerning His character and care for us. But we can pause a moment and remind ourselves how He has cared for us from birth and How He will all the way until we see Him… Let us Consider…
1.-He CARED for you in your Mother’s Womb;
” For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for [j]I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. “-{Psalm 139:13-18}
2.- He CARED for you Before The Foundation Of The World;
“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,”-{Ephesians 1:4-5}.. His was a pre-planned care, that goes back before you were born, back before the pharaohs, the pyramids, back before the beginning of time when He spoke the world into existence, or the first birds flew in the expanse of the heavens, back before the first sky-blue skies and the glowing of the innumerable stars that light the darkened night proclaiming His glory. {Read Psalm 19:1}. Back before what we call time, in eternity in His mind He knew you, decided the time, the place He would create you and before the foundation of the world determined to save you, and adopt you into His family to know Him and to secure your eternal safety. How amazing He circumstanced your life and chose you to be His, before the foundation of the world! How long has God cared for you? Before the foundation of the world! Jeremiah 31:2 says, “I have loved you with an Everlasting love.”
3. -He CARED For Your Soul – when you were spiritually Dead;
” And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, “- {Ephesians 2:1-6}
4.-He CARED for You At The Cross;
” For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. “-{Romans 5:5-10}. Note what our spiritual condition was, we were, “helpless”-{v5}; “ungodly”-{v5}; “sinners”-{v8}; “enemies”-{v9}. There was nothing in us to attract or warrant His care or Love. But He chose to, independent of all else, He set His value on us,”But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” His is a continuing love that the cross speaks of. His continual care as evidenced by His love for us on the cross!
5. -He Has Taken CARE of Your Future;
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”-{John 14:2-3}.
“ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. “-{John 17:24}
6.-He has CARED for Your Spiritual Resources;
A. -The Power Of God &, The Promises of God; “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”-{2 Peter 1:3-4}
B. -The Spirit of God; “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “-{John 16:13}. “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.”-{Phil 2:13 NLT}
C. – Spiritual Gifts; ” As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. “- {1 Peter 4:10-11}
D.- The Word of God; “and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. “-{2 Timothy 3:15-17}
E – Gifted, Godly Leaders; ” And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”-{Ephesians 4:11-16} ‘
G.- Spiritual Weapons;– “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ” -{2 Cor 10:4-5}
7.-He CARES About The Things That Worry You!
Did you know we get our word “worry” from an old word that means “to strangle.” If somebody is strangling you they are cutting your oxygen off, where you cannot breathe, and a lack of oxygen can cause brain damage and ultimately death. In the spiritual realm “worry,” cuts off spiritual oxygen, “faith,” reliance, confidence in God. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him!”-{Hebrews 11:6}. Anxiety which comes from two Greek words, “To Divide” and “mind.” Anxiety pulls the mind in different directions and leads to instability, “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways”-{James 1:8 }. The goal for our mind is to Love God with, The LORD Jesus said, ““‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’”-{Read Luke 10:27}. And to do this we need to be renewing our mind according to Romans 12:2 and being a doer of His Word. “ But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”-{Read James 1:22}. The things that you are worried about, anxious over God cares about anything and everything that you care about, That is comforting and even more so as he promises He has not only the ability but the loving heart to take care of all of them and tells us, “casting all your anxiety on Him, “-{1 Peter 5:7}. The word “all” means the “whole,” how sweet and wonderful, not just a portion, or even most of the things that worry and make us anxious but all of them the whole of them, none excluded. you cast them on Him once and for all, the way it is written grammatically. The word “cast” was used to throw off something. When the people threw their coats over the donkey as Jesus entered Jerusalem, where the animal carried them, not the people. God’s Word compares us to sheep, and sheep were not created to carry burdens, heavy objects of any kind and in the spiritual realm neither were we meant to carry burdens of any kind that weigh us down, divide our mind from devotion to the LORD, and distract us from His business, loving Him and others! Casting them all on Him… and He tells us why…
8. -GOD CARES FOR YOU;
“Because HE Cares for you!”
Jesus speaks to some worrying followers these words, “And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! “-{Luke 12:22-24}. The necessities of life were worrying them, and He makes a comparison with ravens, a selfish bird, how they have no storerooms, or barn where to stockpile, bit how GOD takes care of them and then He says these beautiful loving words, “How Much More Valuable YOU are than the birds!” You are Valuable to GOD. He did not die for birds but He did die for you because He cares for you!! “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? “- {Romans 8:32}. You are Valuable to God. Believe His Word, see His love through sending His Son to die in your place to take your load, burden of sin and He carried it on the cross and died for your sin, so that you need not die in your sin, and He died to bring you to God. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”-{1 Peter 3:18}. He personally, continuously CARES FOR YOU!
There is never a moment when HE does not CARE for you.
When you awake in the morning, you are awakened by Love who Cares for you, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.“-{Psalm 139:17-18}. When you awake He is with you, He is always with you and He cares for you, the Psalmist says, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand…” If we could count every grain of sand by taking a handful and grain by grain letting them fall through our fingers as we sought to do the impossible, counting all the grains, we would need endless lifetimes to get through the surface of one desert let alone go below the surface and not to mention the sand in all the deserts and on all the sea-shores and he says the precious thoughts God has for you outnumbers them all. Oh, how He Lovingly, compassionately, consistently, cares for you, eternally so!
In times of Suffering, slandering, anxiety, the message is CASTING all of your anxieties “…because He Cares for you!” Who is it that cares for you? He whom verse 5 says is all powerful and present, as is the meaning of the phrase, “The Mighty Hand of God.” God who is all powerful cares for you! When you are tempted to be scared, anxious, when you are suffering or as Peter says in 1 Peter 1:6 “Distressed” the word speaks of “emotional stress” and encountering “fiery trials”- {1 Peter 1:7}, remember to cast all of your anxieties upon Him once and for all, and the motivation is, “Because He cares for you!” But who is it who casts their anxieties upon Him? It is the humble ones, and only the humble ones.
Humility’s Benefits
The Humble Get to Cast All Of Their Anxieties upon the LORD.
The Humble have a Promise of Hope- “God Cares For You.”
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”-{1 Peter 5:6-7}