“Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting
all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7
The scripture says: “Pride
goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs
16:18) Humility is a defense to the sanctified, therefore pride is a weapon of
the devil. Which he uses liberally. The carnal heart is infected with pride, it
is a pillar of carnality. A man’s pride
chains him to undue care. Furthermore,
it banishes the humility; humility that would encourage the character, direction,
and hand of God in his life.
Jesus Christ said, “I do
nothing of myself.” This statement
staggers me. It is totally contrary to
the way the world and Satan would have us operate. They would have the sanctified, Christian
believer, do everything of themselves.
The trails, tribulations, and challenges of life must be met. Necessities must be met. Then outside of that, most of us have
creature comforts that we feel we must maintain. In addition, there are goals, ambitions, and
wishes that we feel compelled to perform.
In all of this, comes care, stress, and anxiety. Take something as simple as cutting the
grass. Apparently, it is unbecoming of a
neighbor to have an untidy lawn, so we labor to keep it tidy. In that process we procure a mower, weed eater,
and broom or leaf blower; or we simply pay someone who has that stuff
already. Regardless, we are then in need
of gainful employment that will provide the money to pay or procure tools to
cut the grass. Is grass cutting a source
of anxiety in our life? Most likely not,
however, it is a stressor. It brings a
cause of care in our little kingdom.
Depending on the size of your kingdom it may be one of the one hundred
things that cause care and worry. You
may feel like you are adequately managing the kingdom, or totally failing. In either case, if you have the mindset that
you are doing it, that you are in charge; then you are setting yourself up for
destruction and fall; according to the scriptures. The devil is moving you into the danger zone,
setting up pride as an idol in your own heart and letting you believe that “you
got this.” True, it may all be “under
control” today, but there is coming a day when it’s not. There is coming a day when you need a
Savior. To some it may come sooner
rather than later, to a few it may come later, but to all it will come. The show may go on with a confident smile;
but when death comes, nobody can pass judgment without Jesus. If pride is cemented in your heart, you will
not pass judgment. Therefore, in all
things we must “do nothing of myself.”
We must humble and cast. The man
of pride can be destroyed in the human heart as sure as the man of sin can, but
the world, flesh, and the devil will constantly try to resurrect him. Therefore, we must die daily, and cast it all
on Jesus. Humble ourselves and let him
lift us up.
Humility is the sliver bullet to temptation of pride with leads to:
care, anxiety, worry, and fear. Humility
firmly puts Jesus Christ in the driver seat.
You don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t have to have to be “owning life”
(more likely, life is owning you); but you do have to cast all your care upon
him. We all must humble ourselves. When we do, God will lift us up and take care
of us; he will keep that which is committed unto him “against that day.”
