Hill Country Bible Church

Not Shaken: Day Thirty-Two

Ben Padula

Bio: 

My name is Ben Padula, but you can call me Ben for short. In 2005, God led me to move from Bellwood, PA to Austin, TX for a job as a Web Developer. Just a few short weeks later, I was helping to plant Hill Country UT. A few years later, I fell in love with my Emily, and we got hitched in 2008. Now I am an elder and continue to work to see the name of Christ magnified at UT and around the world.

Passage: 1 Peter 5:7

Central Truth:

Genuine humility requires that we also relinquish our worries to God.

Devotional:

Simple concept, yet so difficult to work out in our daily lives. Why is that? Why do we seem to catch ourselves worrying so often. What should I wear to my interview? What if I don't finish my project by the deadline? What does my roommate really think of me?

Anxiety is defined as "distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune." I think giving our anxieties over to God is so difficult because we have an illusion of control. Our culture—particularly our American culture—wrongly teaches us to "take life by the horns." The quarterback is held equally responsible for a win or loss—no matter how well or how poorly he played. The CEO receives the blame or credit for the company's success or failure—even if it was primarily determined by outside market forces. Even in our own lives we have the same illusion of control. "If we plan our lives just right, and think of all the possible things that can go wrong, we can avoid our worst fears." It's all on us.

The problem is that we actually don't have such control. "And which one of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?"  These words of Jesus from Matthew 6 expose our illusion. The notion that we could control anything, including the span of our lives is nothing short of pride.

Now we are ready to tie this verse in with the rest of the sentence to which it belongs. Since God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (v. 5), "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." I think these two seemingly separate commands are tied together by Peter because you cannot have one without the other. In order to relinquish our many worries, we must humbly admit that we are not so powerful as we think—but God is.

If we need any more reason to lay down our pride and cast our cares upon Jesus, Peter gives us one more—because he cares for you. Because you and me, we matter to God. What happens to us is of supreme importance to him. Oh how he loves us!


Discussion Questions: 

 
1. What fears or misfortunes worry you the most?

2. What is keeping you from giving up these concerns and entrusting them to Jesus?

3. "Anxieties" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "merimna" meaning "care, anxiety" and "distraction; to be drawn in different directions." In what ways are our anxieties spiritually dangerous?