6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1Peter 5:5-11
The Lord brought this passage to my mind the other night, while I was being still before Him. I had just been praying for wisdom and for guidance to help me with the stress I am dealing with. What was funny to me is that I kept thinking about the part that says “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”. So I looked up the entire passage, and lo and behold was an answer to my prayers. So, here are my thoughts on this passage.
Casting all my cares upon Him also requires me first to humble myself before the Lord. Let’s look at the definition of humble.
Humble:
1. Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.
2. Showing deferential or submissive respect.
3. Low in rank, quality, or station; unpretentious or lowly.
If I am not prideful, and am of low rank, then that right there should help to reduce my anxiety. What people say about me, or do to me should not affect me, because I know who I am in Christ, and have humbled myself before Him. I have given up my “rights”. Also, according to this passage, I have hope that He will exalt me… eventually. Not only that, He will perfect, establish, strengthen, and (my personal favorite) settle me.
Now this may be a stretch, but while talking about being humble, a new thought is introduced, be sober, be vilegant, for the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Could it be that through our pride the devil has an opportunity to devour us? Pride is the sin that caused the devil to be cast out of heaven…he knows it well.
I know that I have struggled with self-righteousness, which is just a fancy name for pride. It happens so easily and subtly that we don’t even see it happening! And then come the fall…you know “pride goeth before a fall”. Uh-huh.
Pride is definitely the enemy!