Humility & fearlessness

1 Peter 5:6-11 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 

7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

9 Resist him,firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 

10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I was reading this passage the other day as I was sitting at work, barely able to breathe because of the anxieties that were crushing me. It has been a long time since I have had a full-blown panic attack but this week has certainly tested those limits. And as I sat and tried to breathe, and tried to pray, as the Lord often does, He brought a song to my mind that perfectly fit the situation. It was the Psalty the Singing Songbook children's chorus "I cast all my cares upon You." 

I pulled up 1 Peter 5 on biblegateway.com because I knew that verse was somewhere in there but as I read down through the verses I was struck with how isolated from each other verses 6, 7 and 8 often are in our thinking. 

As I meditated on this passage I felt like the Lord opened my eyes to see a few things. 

1. Humility is necessary for casting our cares on Him. You see, anxiety is really just me fighting for control and realizing that I don't have it. 

2. Casting our cares requires that we bend our knees, because like the song says "I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet."

3. Fear is consequence of every lie.--This is actually at thought that Mike Donehey from Tenth Ave North unpacks here:

But what I liked about this as I watched this video again is that he points out that Satan is the father of lies and I think that ties verse 7 & 8 together for me. See, we cast all out cares on Him, and then immediately after Peter tells us to be sober and watchful because our adversary, the devil is seeking whom he may devour. And the first time I read that the other day I was confused---thinking, "Peter, your thought train just jumped the track and I fell off." But because fear/anxiety, whatever you want to call it, is the product of believing a lie and Satan is the father of lies, if we want to escape fear we need to be on our guard against lies. 

4. One final thought, and perhaps the most important. 

Humbling yourself is key because it puts you back where you belong and remind you of Who it is that sits on the throne. And then there is no fear because He has promised: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because He trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3

Look to Him. Cast your cares on Him--believing that He is more than able. And don't believe the lies!