Living A Life of Humility!

"So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and in His good time He will lift you up. Cast all your cares and worries upon Him, for He cares about what happens to you." 1 Peter 5:6-7

What do you do when you're tempted to let the cares and worries of life bog you down? What do you do when the walls of unpleasant, uninvited circumstances are crashing in all around you?

Notice the text in 1 Peter does not read that God is to humble us. Instead the command from Peter is that we are to humble ourselves.

I believe that Peter makes this statement with the assumption that the believer knows that they accomplish this by living out of their union with Christ. Since Christ has already humbled Himself by dying on a cross, Phil. 2:8, we too can share in His humility by resting in His finished work.

Humbling oneself is a recognition of the worth of the person we are humbling ourselves before. I believe that humility and resting go together. In the context of burdens and worries, humbling is resting in who I am, human; and resting in who He is, Divine.

Humbling ourselves is not just for Him, but for us. It slows us down enough to recognize His greatness and our need, instead of staying in the busy mindset of trying to work out our cares and worries on our own.

It's not about religious duty or how to get out of life's unpleasant circumstances. But an intimate relationship of living in and through life's unpleasant circumstances, while living out of our union with Jesus Christ.

So the command is not really a command to do, it is a command of sharing in His Life, a Life that produces humility and surrender. What a joy and a blessing from God to live from our identity and union with Christ.

Then Peter goes on to use the phrase "under the mighty hand of God".

Seeing ourselves as we truly are, under His Lordship and control, allows us to approach our lives with an attitude of surrender and humility. Then, in exactly the right time, God will lift you up. He may choose to lift you up and out of the bad circumstances or He may choose to lift you up and leave you in the bad circumstances. Either way, we have the wonderful invitation from Father of getting to know Him more intimately.

Then Peter says, "To cast all our cares on Him".

See friends, we're going to be tempted to handle our cares and worries out of our own resources and strength. We all have polished coping mechanisms and survival strategies that we have learned over the years to turn to, in order to meet our legitimate needs in illegitimate ways.

Father asks us to cast or throw those cares into His loving arms instead. Why? Because He cares for you so deeply. Caring has to do with intimacy and closeness. Not a general feeling about someone or a condescending emotion. But one of knowing intimately.

While we humble ourselves by His grace, He extends even more grace to us by caring for us and about us. This is the One who says, I care so deeply and love you so fully, that I even know the number of hairs on your head.

After all He has done for us, He could just command respect and submission. But He understands us, our limitations and the fact that things can so easily entangle us. As the Psalmist said, He knows our frame, that we are only dust! Therefore, He desires for us the wonderful opportunity of believing and trusting in a loving, intimate Father.

So my dear brothers and sisters, will you choose to humble yourselves under His mighty hand by casting all of your cares and worries into His loving arms?

Peter finally ends this wonderful appeal in verse 10 with these resounding and reassuring Words from Father's heart. Enjoy the promises from Father, to you, His precious child.

"In His kindness God called you to His eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation." Amen!

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God Makes Good Out of Our Bad!

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Have you ever thought that because you made a really bad choice, that you would forever be stuck with God's second best for your life, always wondering what might have been?

If you have, you are not alone. This deception from the enemy has been used to keep believers from experiencing deep intimacy with God for centuries. When we've made choices that we believed really messed things up, it's difficult to believe that God wants to still give us His very best.

Maybe you're thinking, sure He might bless me, but my life will never be as good as it could have been? I have some good news that can set you free from this damaging, distorted belief, that is rooted in a wrong concept of God.

The good news is that God's love is greater than your bad choices! There is nothing you can do, no matter how big or small, no matter how ugly it was, that will make your life less than God's best for you.  Why? Because you belong to the living God, and it is His responsibility to ensure that your life stays on track. The bible says that He has promised to complete the work He has begun in you.

In Colossians 1:16 we read, "By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him."

Someone once said, "That the world does not exist in a cosmic setting where everything occurs by happenstance. Instead the bible tells us that everything is functioning by the all powerful, mighty hand of God. Do the stars that He created hang up in the sky on their own? No! Father God holds them up there, and knows each one by name. Does the earth keep spinning on its axis by it's own power? No! God designed it that way."

Proverbs 5:21 says, that God ponders or knows your every move. How intimate and meticulous is our God. The word has the idea of somebody walking alongside you with His face inches away from yours, lovingly examining and scrutinizing your every move.

Satan, the great deceiver, wants you and I to believe that because of our bad choices, God will forever look at us a little differently than He used to before we "blew it", and certainly cannot use us as He once did, could have or would have.

If you want to experience the depths of intimacy with God through Jesus His Son, it is important to know and believe that God is in full control of your life. In fact, if you cannot believe that God is in control of all of your life, than you cannot be sure that He is in control of any of your life!

Yes, sinning has it's consequences and we may have to reap what we have sowed. Yet, God has promised that nothing can seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. But what about....? What about what? We all would do well to repent of the sin of unbelief! Satan is a liar and the father of lies. No longer allow him the ground to crawl on.

So be encouraged today my dear friends. Nothing ever catches God off guard or by surprise. He knew it all when He was lovingly and intimately creating you in your mother's womb. God is in the business of turning crucifixions into resurrections.

Nothing you've done, no matter how wrong or stupid it was, will limit your God and Father from working in your life, or stop Him from intimately loving you. The love of God is greater than all of our bad choices. He has promised to never ever stop loving you and to never leave you or forsake you!

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Living Life To Your Fullest!

"A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now." Ecclesiastes 7:4

Remember the days of our youth when we felt that we were invincible? There seemed to be an assumption that aging and death were the fate of other's misfortune, not ours. I have been reminded lately that aging and death have no manners and are no respecter of persons.

In fact, the Bible talks about both of them as a fact of life. Since aging and dying are a fact of life and none of us can escape this reality, it would be wise to find out what God our Father has to say about it.

Father has been bringing these two verses to my mind and my heart, let me share them with you. David cried out to God in the Psalms saying, "Lord teach me to number my days, so that I may present to you a heart of wisdom.

"Ecclesiastes 7:4 reads, “A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now”.

Let me share with you how I received these verses from our gracious God and Father.

Son, I came to give you life and life more abundant. Live life to its fullest because it is very short. One day you too will be old so prepare for that day by living wise and dependant on Me and allowing Me to freely live My life through you. Let growing in intimacy with Me, be your primary goal in life. All the other things will fall into place.

Today is the day to enjoy your life and your health. Do not think that you can escape aging or death? It is appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. Yet, did I not say that I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even if he dies?

So, there is no need to fear aging or death if you know and love Me.Death for My children is the ultimate “Divine promotion”. Prepare for your retirement and leave financial provision for your children.

Proverbs 16 says, "A wise man plans his ways, but it’s the Lord who directs his steps”. A wise man leaves an inheritance to his children. Friends, it would be wise for all of us to take some time to sit with Father and talk to Him about our life; past, present and future. Are you enjoying your life or simply enduring it?

I believe that we are not ready to live until we are ready to die. How about you. Are you ready to live by being ready to die? May I encourage you to ask Father for a heart of wisdom to age gracefully and to prepare for our inevitable exit from this side of eternity.

Where we are going, will have no more tears, pain, hurt, sin or sadness. Why? Because Jesus will be there, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is perfect peace!

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The New You!

"And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. And I will put My Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command." Ezekiel 36:26-27

Have you ever wondered what sin is? Sin is such a little BIG word and often times seems to be some what elusive when we attempt to grasp it or understand it biblically. Are we simply sinners saved by grace? Here is a look at what Father has to say about sin and His remedy for it.

God makes it clear in His Word that He has only one answer to every human need - His Son Jesus. He died for our forgiveness, He lives for our deliverance. According to Romans, "sins" deal with wrongs I have committed before God. "Sin" is the power working in me. I need forgiveness of my sins and deliverance from the power of sin in me.

I need forgiveness for what I have done, the blood side of the cross and I need deliverance from what I am, the body side of the cross. According to Leviticus, the blood deals with what we have done, whereas the cross deals with what we are. (Identity)

It is God's holiness and God's righteousness which demands that a sinless life should be given for man. Remember from the O. T. God said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." The blood of Christ wholly satisfies God. 1 Peter 1:18-19 But it does not satisfy our heart condition. Jer.17:9

We need a new heart. Ezk. 36:26. Therefore, we come to God on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus. I approach God through His merit alone, never on the basis of my performance, work, earnings etc. Heb.10; Eph. 2

Romans 5 tells of our peace with God. God will no longer be a cause of dread to me. But, there can still be unrest in us. Rom. 8:6-7. So the blood washes away my sins, but it cannot wash away the old man. It needs the cross to crucify me. The blood deals with the sins, but the cross must deal with the sinner. Romans teaches us that we are not sinners because we sin, but because we were in Adam when he sinned.

We cannot change this condition in any way. The good news is that in Christ we have been set free! In Christ we've been given everything pertaining to life and godliness. In Christ we have power over sin.

Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me."

When we understand and appropriate our co-crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension in Christ, the freedom and power to live and enjoy the Christian life becomes a practical reality. We need to find ourselves not being a spectator of the crucifixion at calvary, but participator in it, in Christ.

So my friends, with Paul we can say, sin shall not be master over me. I have died to sin. I am now alive to Christ. He is my life and my source of life. I can choose to live out of my union with Christ. I can fight from victory, not for victory, forevermore!

(Credit given and adapted from Exchanged Life Ministries Texas Teaching Materials)