Humbled

Sometimes a Bible verse pops to the surface and you think, wow, I will have ample opportunities to apply that verse all the days of my life. I Peter 5:6 is one of those types of verses. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honor in His service] at the appropriate time.”

I don’t know about you, but every day of my life I feel out of my element to accomplish the task before me on one level or another. It may be the techie problems I face with marketing, or maybe be more consequential like resolving a relational issue that is negatively affecting everyone. With the advance of technology and an awareness of worldwide problems, we can feel pretty powerfulness to make a difference. It is a humbling time for all of us as we must recognize at some point that we do not have all the answers. In fact, with many of the problems we don’t even know where to begin.

What is awesome for the believers, is to realize, we actually do know where to begin. When we don’t know which end is up and when everything seems nonsensical we drop to our knees at the foot of the cross. God can make sense of the chaos. He can light the path for us. He can bring comfort when we want to panic. He can steady us in an unsteady world.

So why do we resist God’s help? Why do we insist that “we got this” before a holy, all knowing God, who can clearly see that we are a train-wreck waiting to happen? Perhaps, it is because we want to hold on to the illusion of control. We want to think we are competent to handle whatever life throws us. And sometimes, I don’t think we want to share the glory of success with the Lord, we just want the praise of people for ourselves to validate us. If we take a deep dive, every we success and victory we have is anchored to God, from beginning to end. When I think about things I have accomplished in my life they wouldn’t have happened had I not been given good health to accomplish it, parents and a husband that cheered me on. Yes, I did some hard work, but the circumstances God provided laid the ground work for me to press on and accomplish a task of consequence. It wasn’t just a team effort that helped… it was a God orchestrated task and His grace that helped accomplish it.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

For every crisis we face, for every obstacle standing in our way, there is our Abba Father waiting for us to come to Him and ask, “will you please help me with this…I don’t know what to do or how to fix it?”

“…casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” I Peter 5:7 The Amplified Bible

Dear Lord, incline our hearts to run to you when we don’t know what to do. May we never believe the lie that you are uninterested in helping us or that you will be angry at us for asking. May we experience your loving guidance and follow your lead. In Jesus name. Amen.

“If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5-6 The Amplified Bible