1 Peter 5:6–7: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care [anxiety] upon Him, for He cares for you.”

August 13th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Peter places the responsibility of humility on us. We must choose to humble ourselves; we must decide to do it. Humble literally means “to accept lowly mindedness,” or said another way, choosing an attitude that doesn’t think itself too good to serve God by serving others. Peter is saying we should simply submit to God’s will, even when we don’t understand it completely. It is normal to have questions about God, but Peter is saying something like, “Eventually it will all make sense, but right now submit to Him by putting all your anxieties into the hands of the One who cares so greatly about you.”

There is a story of a woman who was returning home from the market, carrying a big heavy basket on her head, when Jesus drove by in a buggy. He stopped and kindly offered to drive her home. She thanked Him and got into the buggy with her basket. On the way, Jesus glanced over at her, still holding her basket over her head. He asked her to lay the basket down in the cart and rest. The woman naively replied, “Oh Jesus, it is enough that Your buggy is carrying me. I should not ask You to carry my basket too!” Have you ever done the same with God? Every single day, God carries believers through the day. Yet we still insist on carrying our heavy baskets full of worries about family, kids, spouse, money, job, etc. We need to be continually reminded to lay down every care at the foot of the cross, putting them back into God’s capable hands.

“LORD, we surrender again to Your care this day.”