AUGUST 30, 2020
1 Peter 5: 6 – 7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you. Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
As I am writing this, Hurricane Laura has just passed over the Gulf Coast. Some parts of Louisiana have seen a great deal of destruction. Years ago, we lived in New Orleans while I was doing my Master’s degree in Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. We actually lived on the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans and only 4 blocks from the levee that kept the Mississippi from overflowing the entire area in which we were living. It was shocking to look west and see large ocean – going ships majestically moving up the river with their superstructures stretching higher than the houses below the levee. To be in New Orleans when a hurricane threatens is truly to know fear! You will have to travel east over causeways or west over causeways or north across Lake Ponchartrain over ….guess what? A causeway! And these causeways stretch for miles over swamps, streams, and lakes. Our escape plan was simple: if we were threatened, we planned to go north into Mississippi as quickly as possible.
Interesting enough, despite the fact that a break in the levee would have flooded our ground floor apartment completely, we actually lived without fear. Why? We believed that God had brought us to New Orleans, that God had opened up the chance to rent this apartment, and that God was going to take care of us. We literally had to cast our anxiety on God, but we did and God did take care of us completely.
Here Peter is continuing his theme about the need for personal humility. If we are puffed up with pride, God can’t exalt us because our pride will block him from doing so. The only way we can qualify for God to exalt us is if we acknowledge Him as God and humble ourselves before Him, worshiping Him and trusting Him.
How can we possibly know what God might have planned for us? We might have some very small while God has something much bigger in mind. Mary McLeod Bethune was born to former slaves in South Carolina in 1875 and began working in the fields at age 5. But Mary was a woman of great faith. Before her death in 1955, she had risen to become the founder of a college and a college president, a civil rights leader, a member of the “Black Cabinet” for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and an inspiration to millions. Nobody looking at that 5 year old little girl in a cotton field could possibly have predicted what she would become….but God knew.
We all need to take a close look at ourselves. Are we relying on ourselves, or are we trusting in God? Are we strutting around all puffed up, or are we willing to remain humble? Are we trying to dictate to God what He should do with our lives, or are we willing to trust that He can do magnificent things. Mary McLeod Bethune’s example should point the way. Humble yourself and God will exalt you.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you that your plans for us are far more wonderful than anything we can possibly imagine. Thank you that you are truly sovereign and that you know all, see all, and love us in spite of ourselves. Help us to humble ourselves and to trust you. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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