The Siberian Grinder

“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.” 1 Peter 5.6-7

It looks like there are two exhortations in the passage above. In fact, there is only one: “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” In verse 7, Peter tells us how to do that—casting all your anxieties on him.

We don’t normally think of anxiety as something that is rooted in pride. In fact, when we are most anxious, we often feel least confident (and we think that is humility). Yet, the truth of the matter is that we feel anxious because we refuse to trust God, and refusing to trust God is the proudest act.

Casting our anxieties on him humbles us because we are acknowledging our need and dependence upon the Lord. We are confessing that we cannot handle the issues that are causing our worry. “Lord, I need you in this today. Without you, I can do nothing.” That is the plea of the humble.

Notice two more things from this text. First, God’s hand is mighty. There are no circumstances which he cannot handle. There is absolutely nothing you are facing or could possibly face that God cannot handle. Second, God cares for you. He is not unconcerned about our suffering. You are not insignificant to God.

With all that in mind, can you be humble enough to live carefree? Cast your anxieties on Him today!

All I Have Is Christ from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

From Clyde Kilby:

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities.

I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

HT: John Piper

This is from John Piper in a 1994 sermon about forgiveness. I used Watson’s definition of forgiveness and Piper’s six explanations in last night’s Growing Together session. It is great stuff.

Question: When do we forgive others?

Answer: When we strive against all thoughts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them. (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 581)

I think this is a very biblical definition of forgiveness. Each of its parts comes from a passage of Scripture.

1. Resist thoughts of revenge: Romans 12:19, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
2. Don’t seek to do them mischief: 1 Thessalonians 5:15, “See that no one repays another with evil for evil.
3. Wish well to them: Luke 6:28, “Bless those who curse you.”
4. Grieve at their calamities: Proverbs 24:17, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.”
5. Pray for them: Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”
6. Seek reconciliation with them: Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

Be always willing to come to their relief: Exodus 23:4, “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.”

I’m in the front yard. The dawn is breaking. The sun is bursting forth with rays of pink and orange and blue. It is morning; glorious morning. And it is a perfect morning. The light is beautiful; the air is cool, and the bugs are still sleeping. I hear a dog bark off in the distance. A full choir of birds are chirping away at one another in the trees above. Even the crow’s caw is fitting in this wonderful tapestry of sound and light.

The Lord has created morning. It is his handiwork – and it is magnificent. The day is birthed in splendor. Whatever else the day might go on to be, it begins with a crescendo. Morning ends the night and without subtetly. The darkness gives way to a spring of glory in the same way a woman’s pangs give way to new life. The glory of morning is the Creator. Morning sings of the glory of God. Let the nations rejoice, for it is morning.

But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. – Ps 59:16.

For my daily devos I’m working through the book of Revelation. I was impressed by Jesus Christ’s words to John;

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” Re 1:17-18.

Specifically, I was struck by the first two words and how they relate to the rest of the sentence. The awesome person and work of Jesus Christ is reason enough not to fear.

Lamentations is not the most happy-go-lucky book in the Bible. It is, after all, a collection of the prophet Jeremiah’s elegies over the condition and consequence of sin among the nation of Israel. The text is loaded with a tightly-written, vividly pictorial language of grief. In fact, the book drips of sorrow and with what seems like hopelessness: “I am a man who has seen affliction...” and “He [God] has made my flesh and my skin waste away...” and “my eyes are spent with weeping, my stomach churns…” But hopeless Jeremiah was not. Woven into these laments are words that turn our attention and our hope to the One who is faithful, merciful and ready to save. It is from this book that we have one of our most cherished hymns, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
- La 3:22-26. ESV

Jeremiah was doing what all of us need to do in the midst of trial and even when we have to endure the painful consequences of sin (the supposed when it is my fault exception to hope in God). In those times, as in all times, we must fix our eyes upon, and anchor our hope in, God. Indeed, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Ponder on that the next time you get the idea that all is lost!

Don’t miss this moving post by John Piper. He wrote it as his father, William S. H. Piper, went home to be with the Lord.

Click here to go to the post.