“It’s not fair. This isn’t right. This isn’t the way it was supposed to turn out. Why did this happen to me? How can God allow that person to get away with the harm he has done? Why doesn’t God do something? Why doesn’t he heal me? Why doesn’t God care? How can she be so cruel and get away with it?”
Our “cares” sometimes get in the way of our bowing before God and allowing him to love us and move in our lives.
(1 Peter 5:6-7 BBE) For this cause make yourselves low under the strong hand of God, so that when the time comes you may be lifted up; (7) Putting all your troubles on him, for he takes care of you.
[Just a side note: If you are not familiar with the Bible in Basic English (BBE) then you might want to check it out, so very powerful and clear, such as with the above text. You may get this translation and others free with eSword, an excellent, free Bible study program, and I mean excellent, unreal that this program is free.]
Our pride and demanding spirit so often get in the way of God’s care for our lives. I have written about this before but casting goes with bowing. Verse 7 flows from verse 6 which flows from verse 5. For way too long we have ripped the “casting our cares” verse out of context and as a result have disabled the ability of many to actually access God’s loving and sovereign care because we direct them away from his throne instead of before it.
The only place to connect with, or even partially understand, God’s sovereignty is bowed before his throne. If we reject God’s sovereignty, then how can we expect in any way to “see” his plan and purpose.
The King of the universe is plenty able to deal with all the misfortunes and heartaches we endure on this Earth, but if we can’t trust him for these things then how will we see just how amazing he is. And we don’t see that from our pride but from our humility as we “make ourselves low under his strong hand.”
Casting our cares follows humbling our lives. Until you make the connection your ability to trust God for life is at least partially disabled.
Casting flows from humbling, but often we don’t humble ourselves. Instead we hang on, as in hanging on to our anxiety, hanging on to our anger, our sense of injustice, the way we think things should go, should have been, and we keep working it, trying to make a way.
Keep manipulating, keep fighting all the horizontal battles of a person who doesn’t “get it,” who doesn’t know and/or trust the King, the sovereign God of creation and redemption.
We try to get God to bow to us, to our plan, to the way things should be. We may even try a little Bible – “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 ESV) – if it can help us toward our plan for a pain-free, anxiety-free life.
But while working our plan we are sucked into the black hole of our pride, and that. . .God opposes.
He has to because no true good could come from the Creator bowing before the demands of the created, or the Redeemer bowing before the whims of the redeemed.
Life happens before the throne, Baby! We bow, we see, we trust. The mighty hand is making it happen, and we know it.
(1 Peter 5:5b ESV) Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
You see, sometimes even “using” the Bible is just another instance of our pride in action. We “claim” 1 Peter 5.7 while refusing to bow before God, refusing his plan, putting ourselves at odds with his gracious and sovereign care for our lives.
What is left after dragging this truth from its context is merely an exhibition of our proud and rebellious spirit.
But that isn’t what I want to focus on this morning.
Mercy is new every morning and there is a wonderful, beyond description place you need to know about, a place where you know God is strong and cares, where God is working his plan and you are part of it.
A place where you can trust God for every heartache, every disappointment, every bitter turn that life spits at you.
A truly sacred, holy place where the whole world has to hush and keep still.
(Habakkuk 2:20 ESV) But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
A place where your heart can finally be quiet and find rest.
Where is this place? Bowed before the throne of God, humbled before the King, waiting on God to be God in your life and across this planet.
C’mon. You have to visit this place before leaving Earth.