We should Be Humbled under the Mighty Hand of God and Cast all our Anxiety on Him

We need to be humbled under the mighty hand of God which carries out the government of God, we should cast all our anxiety on Him for it matters to Him concerning us, and God Himself will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us.

Oh, what a God we have! On one hand our God is a loving Father, One who cares for us in the best way possible and who is really interested in what we are interested.

On the other hand, our Father God does not spoil us, His children, by allowing us to do whatever we want and by giving us whatever we ask for.

Rather, God disciplines us and judges us, and judgement begins from His house.

As parents it is not easy to balance our love for our children with the need for discipline; we are either on the side of love and thus spoil our children, or we are too strict and forget about loving them.

But our Father God regenerated us with His life for us to be His children, and He cares for us in love; at the same time, He has a system of government, and He governs by judging.

There are so many things in our being that are not according to God, and there are so many aspects of our living that are not under His rule.

Our Christian life is under the government of God, and He deals with us – His chosen people – so that we may be a sanctified people, the holy people of our holy God.

At the same time, however, He also supplies us with the divine provision; on one hand there’s the divine government with its judgement, and on the hand there’s divine provision to supply us with whatever we need.

Our God governs by judging, and the judgement of God is for the carrying out of His government.

The Father carries out the judgement, a daily judgement as His governmental dealings with His children.

So we should not lose heart neither should we be discouraged when we pass through fiery ordeals, but we should be humbled under the mighty hand of God and cast all our anxiety upon Him, for it matters to Him concerning us.

Yes, God deals with us; yes, He judges so many things in us; yes, we are under His daily judgement as His governmental dealings.

However, at the same time, we can come to Him, we can repent, we can open to Him, and we can enjoy Him, taking Him as our divine provision.

We should be Humbled under the Mighty hand of God, Cooperating by being Willing to be made Lowly under His Hand

In 1 Pet. 5:6 we are told that we need to be humbled under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt us in due time.

“Be humbled” here are passive voice showing that we are made humble by God – mostly through sufferings and persecutions (v. 10).

However, this requires our cooperation; we need to cooperate with God’s operation to make us humble.

We need to be willing to be made humble, lowly, under the mighty hand of God. It is an active-passive matter, in which we do the “be” and God does the “humble”; we cooperate and are willing, and God does the work to make us humble.

We take the initiative, and God does the operation; we are willing, He does the working.

God uses many things to humble us – He uses persecution, our family situation, our work situation, our health, and all things around us. Suffering and persecution may help us to be humble.

For example, when someone loses his job, he may be humbled; when a student receives a lower grade than what he expected, he is humbled; when the children of some parents are troublesome and do not perform great in school, the parents are humbled.

If we have a nice job and everything goes well, if we get the grades that we expect and our children are doing excellent in school, God may not have a way to cause us to be humbled.

This doesn’t mean that we should ask for more difficulties and problems. It means that we should be humbled under the mighty hand of God, which carries out the government of God.

May we not resist the mighty hand of God; may we be humbled.

There’s nothing more unwise than resisting the mighty hand of God which carries out the government of God.

The mighty hand of God refers to God’s administrating hand seen especially in His judgement; when He judges something and we agree with this, He is also dealing with that thing and terminating it.

What a blessing it is for God to judge whatever is not according to Him in us, and for this to happen in this age and not in the next age!

Many times we look back on our experiences and thank the Lord for not allowing certain things to remain in us.

To be humbled under the mighty hand of God is to be made humble by God; on our side, however, we must cooperate with God’s operation and be willing to be made humble, lowly, under His mighty hand (1 Pet. 5:6).

May we cooperate with God’s mighty hand for the sake of the church, for the sake of the saints, and for the sake of the kingdom of God!

May we daily receive grace from God to cooperate with the mighty hand of God to be humbled as God operates in us.

None of us are heroes in this; we learn that our God is real and He is judging, and we learn to cooperate with His mighty hand by being humbled under the mighty hand of God.

What a mercy it is for us to be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that in His time He may exalt us!

We shouldn’t seek to exalt ourselves but rather, we should allow God to exalt us in His time.

Exaltation will come in His time; what we need to do on our side is cooperate with His operation by being willing to be humbled under the mighty hand of God.

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with Your mighty hand by being willing to be made humble by You. May we be humbled under the mighty hand of God which carries out the government of God. May we remain open to You, Lord, and accept Your mighty hand and its operation in our being and environment. Amen, Lord, show us how we can cooperate with Your operation day by day; we want to cooperate with Your operation and be willing to be made humble, lowly, under Your mighty hand!

We should Cast all our Anxiety on God and Commit our Soul to the Faithful Creator to Preserve us

After Peter tells us to be humbled under the mighty hand of God, he encourages us to cast all our anxiety on God because it matters to Him concerning us (1 Pet. 5:7).

As the mighty hand of God operates in us and in our environment, we may get anxious and full of worries; our health may be touched, our family may be touched, and our future may be uncertain.

In such situations we may have anxieties, fears, and concerns; so we should cast them all on the Lord, for it matters to Him concerning us.

It matters to God concerning what we struggle with, concerning our health, concerning our growing children, concerning our job situation, and concerning our situation – we should simply bring these to the Lord and cast all our anxiety on Him!

Whatever matters to us, it also matters to Him. While His hand is on us, dealing with us, He is also caring for us; so we should bring our worries, concerns, and anxieties to Him.

To cast here means to throw upon, to commit to, and give up to; it denotes a once-for-al act.

On one hand we need to cast all our anxiety upon the Lord, and on the other, we should daily cast all anxiety upon the Lord.

We need to learn how to “throw” all our burden and anxiety upon God; our anxiety may be upon our shoulder now and it is pressing our heart, but we should cast it to God, throw it to Him so that He would bear it for us.

We need to cast our anxieties upon God again and again; and when we cast our anxieties on Him, we shouldn’t “secretly take them back” to bear them ourselves.

Sometimes we open to the Lord, cast our anxiety on Him, and open to Him concerning a particular matter; a few days later, however, we may take this anxiety back and bear it ourselves. Oh Lord!

May we just leave all our anxieties with the Lord as we cast them on Him, realizing that it matters to Him concerning us. He cares for us.

Though He is disciplining us and judging us, He has a loving concern for us, His believers, especially as we go through sufferings and persecutions.

God cares for us faithfully, and we can cast all our concerns and cares upon Him.

On one hand our God is mighty and just; on the other, He is loving and caring, and He is faithful toward us, His children.

We should commit our souls to the faithful Creator (1 Pet. 4:19), for He can preserve our soul. His loving and faithful care accompanies His justice in His governmental administration.

It’s not that one day He judges us and then a few days later we feel His love and care; rather, at the same time that we are under His judgement, we experience His love and care.

We may not understand many of the things that are happening, but what a God we have!

We will one day vindicate Him to the whole universe, declaring that He is both righteous and loving and faithful, and He is our God!

While God judges us in His government, He cares for us faithfully in His love; as we are suffering His disciplinary judgement, we should commit our souls to the faithful care of our Creator (Matt. 10:28-30; 11:28-29).

As we live under the government of God, the God of all grace will Himself perfect, establish, and ground us (1 Pet. 5:10).

He Himself, the God of all grace, will do this directly to each one of us; He will perfect us, He will establish us, He will strengthen us, and He will ground us! Hallelujah!

Lord, we cast all our anxiety on You because it matters to You concerning us. We cast all our fears, all our concerns, and all our anxieties upon You, for You care for us and it matters to You concerning us. Amen, Lord, we commit our souls to the faithful Creator, for only God can preserve our soul! Thank You God for not only judging in us what doesn’t match You in Your government, but also loving and caring for us as You do this. Amen, hallelujah, the God of all grace will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us! Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 33 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 6, Doing the Will of God in the Kingdom of God under the Government of God for the Church as the Israel of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Through suff’rings we’d be humbled and in spirit contrite, / And be exposed through testing, thus purged and purified. (Song on, Christ in Numbers)
  – Cast all your anxiety with Him. / Give them, commit them, throw them once for all. / Throw your whole life with all its cares on Him / Because it matters to Him concerning you. (Song on, Cast all your anxiety on Him)
  – For Christ the Lord we then would stand, / He is the Conqueror! / For Him we would endure the pain / Until the fight is o’er. / The hour of triumph soon we’ll see- / The Lord will come again; / If now we suffer for His sake, / Then we with Him shall reign. (Hymns #887)