Marsha's Musings: What Does Humility Have to Do with Casting Our Cares on Christ? (1 Peter 5:5-7 ESV)

      

 

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 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 5:5-7 ESV)

It's been good to study whole books of the Bible instead of isolated verses here and there because it forces me to look at context. Verse 7 of 1 Peter 5 is often quoted in isolation from the context it comes in.  It's the last half of a complete sentence.

” 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."

Of course, what is the therefore there for?  Prior, Peter says we are to humble ourselves toward each other and he says God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.  This is the answer to why the therefore is there.

But what does humility have to do with casting our (care (KJV)) anxieties on Him?  This is usually not addressed when people talk about this verse.

What is anxiety, worry or cares?  Is it nothing more than trying to take responsibility for things that either are not our's to be responsible for or it is fretting about things that are out of our control because we want to be in control?

Think about that.  Our desires to be in control are basically rooted in pride.  We worry and fret over these things because down deep in our hearts we think we can take better care of these things than God can. So humility is required to really cast our cares (worries, anxiety) on God. This bit of an epiphany was surprising to me, it gives a whole new meaning to 1 Peter 5:7.