I Peter 5:6-11 (NIV) 6 Humble
yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due
time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of
sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith,
because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is
undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all
grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a
little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
11 To him be the power
for ever and ever. Amen.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty
hand,
is said to those of us who have a tendency to meet trouble with shrewd
ingenuity, fierce determination, and complete control. Determination, strong
self-confidence is just no match for the power of the adversary. But, notice
that “roar” is all the power the adversary has to take the normal troubles that
come our way and make them large, looming, and threatening. We have a natural
need to earn, but the roar of the adversary keeps the wheels of our mind
whirling for fear that we are not going to have enough. The roar of the
adversary takes the natural desire to set goals for our life and roars over
them so they become the frantic determination to have our own way. The roar of
the lion takes the normal responsibility to discipline our children and roars
over it so that it becomes the uptight effort to control our children. The
adversary roars over the toil and trouble of our life, always with the same
goal: to destroy the firmness of our faith. The adversary roars to fill us with
worry, to send us scurrying, and to steal from us our confidence in God.
Has the roar of the adversary
ever gotten to you? Exaggerated a difficulty? Made a normal problem more
important than it really was? Threatened you? Undid your calm confidence in
God? Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Humility is
such subjection to God that we can lay down the burden of having to get our own
way. Humility is freedom from the obsession that things go the way we want them
to go. Humility lays aside the unwritten script that says “I have to be treated
in a certain way.” Humility is an attitude and a life-style. Humility is living
from a confidence that God can be trusted no matter what happens. Humility
keeps us firm in our faith.
When our will is bent to
God’s will, the roar of the adversary is seen for the bluff it is. The roar of
the adversary loses its power to threaten us, or worry us, or to send us
scurrying everywhere for security. Humility is a gift that God is seeking to
give us. Sometimes when we feel beaten by life, humility is the gift of being
broken by God who breaks our pride but mends our egos. When God lays the cloth
of humility on us, the clothes feel fresh and new and extremely comfortable.
The normal response to being clothed with humility is to breathe a sigh of
relief. The heavy burden of having our own way is lifted and the voice of the
adversary is stilled.
From a sermon preached by
Henry Dobbs Pope May 19, 1996
Copyright Rhonda Hinkle
Mitchell (Broyles)
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