Thursday, May 20, 2010

"He cares for you."

I was reading 1Peter 5 this morning, and something clicked in my brain that had never connected before.
Here's 1Peter 5:5b-7.
"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."

I paid too much attention to the verse breaks every other time I read these verses. So in my mind I thought, "Ok, I should be humble. And I should bring my anxiety to God and leave it there." Two separate actions.
But this time, God showed me something. Anxiety is a direct result of pride. When I'm anxious it's because I want my life to go the way I have planned. I'm worried about how to work my life out the way I want it. I think it's my job to figure out how to make things work out for my good.
I.
Me.
My.
Pride just pours out of all these statements. I exalt myself to a position I have no right to hold when I think I get to pick how my life goes. When I worry, it's just a manifestation of me holding on to my life much too tightly.
So I always knew I had a tendancy to be an anxious person, but I'll have to add prideful to the list now. So now I can be anxious about the fact that I'm a prideful person.... =)
Maybe what I really need is verse 7, "casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
Thank you Jesus for taking my anxiety when I am willing to pry my fingers off of it. And thank you for caring for me, a sinner in desperate need of Your grace!

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