1 Peter 5:5-10 "The To Be List"

Read 1 Peter 5:5-10.

"And the God of all grace... will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." NIV

Peter gives a whole grocery list of items to live by and come out strong in the Christian walk. 

Be submissive to elders: We have lost the value of the wisdom of our elders. The Lord says to submit to that wisdom. Let them lead as He has commissioned them to lead. Follow their direction and we will do better than wandering in our own ignorance.

Clothe ourselves with humility toward one another: Haughtiness and pride will not get us anywhere in the kingdom. If we are to work together as a community in the love of Jesus Christ, then humility must reign. If we humble ourselves before our Lord and before each other, God will recognize us in due time. Our society works so much for accomplishment recognition that we think we have to do that in the church as well. But if we are working for an audience of One, we don't need to look for the accolades of the masses, but seek the approval of the Master alone.

Cast all your anxiety on him: Oh, how I wish more people would get this one. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. Worrying serves no purpose but to waste time and cause high blood pressure and heart attacks. The Lord has everything under control and if we just diligently take concentrated time with Him, our perspective on life, God, our place in this world because strangely clear and the burdens and concerns simply lift off of our shoulders. He cares for me, so why would He not have my life under control.

Be self-controlled and alert: The enemy is like a crouching tiger just waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. His temptations come in not one at a time like a bullet, but more with the tenacity of a machine gun. I must remain alert and on my toes ready to duck from the barrage. And if I ever think I am suffering for my beliefs, I just have to consider my brothers and sisters in China and know my life is easy.

My strength, firmness and steadfastness is firmly rooted in Jesus Christ. Circumstances of life may try to distract me, but my hope never wavers from His amazing love and grace. I will continue to rely on Him and Him alone to hold me up as I humble myself before His throne.

Further Thoughts:

1. Humility is not a popular thought. Everyone is taught to look out for number one. What ways can you show humility in your family, work, neighborhood and church this week? 
   
2. Are you a worrier? Why? What have you gained by worrying? Ask the Lord to help you to surrender control and trust in Him alone. It's a daily burden to lay down.
   
3. Look up other Scripture on these different attributes of living a surrendered Christian life.
4. Is this list related more with what to do or what to be? Explain.
5. How do you remain alert to the enemy's temptations? How can you be proactive against him?

Matthew 26:36-46 "Refocusing"

Read Matthew 26:36-46.

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." NIV

What strikes me first about this passage is vs 37. Jesus was sorrowful and troubled. Except for Jesus' sadness at the death of Lazarus, I don't recall Him being sad or troubled (KJV: distressed). The Greek word for distressed is "to be troubled, great distress or anguish, depressed." Jesus has felt every emotion we have ever felt. And here we see Him very distressed about what He is soon going to face. After all, He wasn't a deity in a glorified body. He was the Almighty God in a human body that can suffer pain. Naturally, He would be troubled facing the agony He knew He was going to suffer. But pay attention to what He does with His distress. He hands it over to His Father. He doesn't just ask that His future be taken away, He asks that the Father's will be done. Even in His complete distress, He is surrendered to the will of His Father.

How often have I been in distress and just wallowed in it. My mind will race through scenario after scenario attempting to predict the future or manipulate it. Yet, no one has faced such a terrible future like Jesus did... and He went to prayer. In my distressing times, I should be falling on my knees in prayer rather than crying out in foreseeable pain. God's will is to be done no matter what. I am merely a servant that obeys His commands and should be submissive to His will -- even if I must go through some pain for it to be done. If the Almighty's Son had to suffer for God's purpose for mankind, I can endure anything for His will to be done.

Jesus' words to His disciples that had fallen asleep on the job still ring true to us today. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

Further Thoughts:

1. Look up Scriptures on distress, worry, cares.
2. Is something causing you distress or trouble? Surrender it to the Father's will. He will either take it away or it will serve His purpose, and He will give you strength to endure it. Either way, we must let it go. His will be done.
3. How is surrender and trust or faith related?
4. Look at the different times Jesus spends in prayer. In those times He is essentially refocusing His perspective. When we get caught up in the doings of life -- good or bad -- we can lose our focus. Time with the Father gets that back. Consciously and purposefully, refocus several times throughout your day today.

Matthew 10:17-20 "The Words of His Mouth"

Read Matthew 10:17-20.

“…do not worry about what to say or how to say it.” NIV

Being a wordsmith, this is a very difficult one for me to do. I will work and work to get even a conversation worked out in my head before I have it. But Jesus is saying that when we are faced with opposition, we don’t have to worry about the words to say, God will give us those words.

Now this is only going to happen under two conditions 1) we remain in an intimate relationship with the Father 2) we are listening for His voice.

Remaining intimately close to the Lord involves spending time with Him and learning His character. The more we study who He is and what He is about, the better we recognize His words when they come to mind. The enemy will try to interfere. But because we have known the Father, we will know whether or not the words coming to mind line up with who He is. If they don’t, we discard them as foreign and wait on the Lord. God never does anything or directs anyone contrary to His nature. If we learn as much as we can about His nature, we are prepared to discern anything that is not of Him.

Developing the skill of listening for God’s voice takes patience, solitude and silence – and sometimes fasting. It requires resisting the urge to always talk to Him and remaining silent to receive from Him. Sometimes, God remains silent for reason unknown to us but very clear to Him. But according to this verse, when words are needed, He will not fail to deliver.

Usually when we are confronted like the disciples were, the situation is very chaotic. The moment is urgent and the pressure is high. But if we’ve taken the time to exercise and develop our spiritual muscle of listening, we will know what we are to say when we need to say it.

Further Thoughts:

1. Moses needed God’s words to speak through him to get the Hebrews freed from the Egyptians. Read how Moses got to the place of being used by God in Exodus 3:1-4:31.
2. What words did Stephen use when faced by the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:1-53? How are these words given to Stephen differently than Moses received his words?
3. What words did Jesus use against Satan in the desert in Luke 4:1-13?
4. Are you spending enough time in the word to recognize the character of God? If not, commit to more intimate times with our Lord in His Word.
5. Prayer is not a monologue, it’s a conversation and God wants His share of the talking time. Do your prayers tend to be one-sided and full of “give me’s?” Spend more time in worship, praise, and thanksgiving, then in silence. It’s amazing what the Lord will speak to you. Keep a notebook nearby to record His words. When the Almighty Creator of the Universe takes time to talk to us, we should write it down. It must be very important.

Matthew 6:25-34 "Why Worry?"

Read Matthew 6:25-34.

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" NIV

I think this passage is very relevant to today. I've had concern for many people, myself included, that we are just becoming worry addicts. We worry about the economy, the war, gas prices, the presidential election, global warming. And these are all important things to be looking at, but do they call for worry? Then there are the daily worries that never seem to change -- about our position at work, our marriage, our children and their education or if we are giving them enough or about their behavior and how we can fix it. Then there is if we have the right car, if we have the right friends, if our clothes are good enough, if we look good enough, if our house is nice enough, if our bodies are healthy enough, if we will die young and miss out on life or if we will die old, poor, and lonely. The sources of worry are unending, and we are too easily ensnared by its grasp.

I think it all comes down to trust. Do we trust that God is who He says He is and nothing more or nothing less, and that He will do what He says He will do? He has said that He knows every hair on our head and loves every part of us. He has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He said that He desires that none should perish but all have eternal life with Him through Jesus Christ. He has said He will meet my every need as long as I ask. He did not say I would have mansions and riches. He did not promise me power and prestige. He did not say I would live forever on this earth without illness or pain. In fact, He promised that I would have hardships for being His follower. He promised that worrying will not add a single day to my life. He promised me the Holy Spirit as my Guide and Counselor. He promised that I would never have to endure more than I could handle. He promised that these are only temporary trials, and He promised me eternal life with Him.

He said if I will surrender to him and trust Him, He will guide me -- show me how to navigate this life according to His will and for His glory. So I must take up my cross daily and follow Him. Author Henry Nouwen said in Making All Things New, "A spiritual life requires human effort. The forces that keep pulling us back into a worry-filled life are far from easy to overcome." If I can't see Him, it's not because He left me; it's because I chose to leave Him. And when I do, the enemy will take the opportunity to place doubts and worries into my mind. They become like a worm edging through every aspect of my psyche, drowning and paralyzing me in lies, until I can do nothing else but wallow in self-pity or cry out for help to my God to rescue me once again. I don't want to keep drowning -- it's too painful.

Lord, I trust you. Do not let me sink to worrying, but only rely on Your promises. I may live in this world, but I am not of it. Raise my thinking above those things that make me worry and help me to trust in Your purposes. I love You.

Further Thoughts:

1. All the promises above are taken from Scripture. Find the passages, spend some time meditating on them, and commit some to memory to help when you are tempted to fall into the worry trap.
2. All throughout the exodus, the Israelite children were worriers, and it got them into trouble so many times because they would try to take matters into their own hands by doing the opposite of what God commanded. Read through their story starting at Exodus 16 and remember that this is just after they've experienced the miracles of the plagues on the Egyptians and their dramatic escape from Pharaoh. See if you tend to follow their pattern. What will you do to change that?
3. Does not worrying about our needs mean we don't need to work hard to provide for our family? Sounds like a stupid question, but some people fall into this thinking. Find Scripture to support a strong work ethic. Look up both "work" and "labor."
4. Read in this post how God has things planned out way in advance. He is never surprised by what we encounter.
5. Read through the words of this old hymn, "Trust and Obey." The verses completely take us through the process of surrendering our trust to the Lord and His promises to the end.