Daily Devotions
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. 1 Peter 5:6
Americans often make a virtue of rushing around and leading hectic lives. Full calendars, frequent business trips, and endless meetings are considered marks of success. Is it any wonder that we often feel harried?
Saint Peter sounds a warning that living harried lives, trying to do it all on our own, may signal a lack of humility. Are you humble or harried? Peter refers to anxiety as one source of harassment. We worry about money, health, family, job. Peter adds that we are harried by the devil, who “prowls around … looking for someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8). Finally, Peter suggests that harassment takes the form of suffering for Christ. Persecutions came to the early Christians because of their faith. We also may suffer when we stand up for the faith in family and community.
Peter in our text suggests that we humble ourselves. Admitting our need for help, we turn to Christ, who “humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). We humble ourselves by casting all our anxieties on Him, for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). He bears the burden. We rest in Him. We humble ourselves by resisting the devil (1 Peter 5:9). We know that God has caged Satan, the roaring lion, in the death of Jesus. We humble ourselves by seeing God’s hand in suffering. He makes us “strong, firm and steadfast” after we “have suffered a little while” (1 Peter 5:10).
Are you humble or harried? By God’s grace you can humbly rest in Him.
PRAYER: Lord God, I put all my worries on You and rest in Your love. Thank You for making my life secure. Amen.
(Devotions from “My Daily Devotion” by Dr. Stephen J. Carter, copyright 1988 CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For ordering information, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit www.cph.org.)