Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that the proper time he may exalt you casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
– 1 Peter 5:6–7
What a word, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. This is a good place to be. It’s a good place to live. Humbly under God’s mighty hand, knowing that when we humble ourselves before God, he will exalt us. What a phrase. So that at the proper time, God may exalt you, God may exalt me. What a picture. It’s what we see all throughout scripture, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted, exalted by who? By God. This is God, our Father who desires to lift us up as we humble ourselves before him.
1 Peter 5:6–7 Gives Us a Humbling Picture
And what does that look like? 1 Peter 5:7, it looks like casting all your anxieties on him. What a picture of what humbling yourself before God is to be humble for God is to say, “God, I trust you with this anxiety and that anxiety. With this that I’m worried about. With that I’m worried about. I trust you. I humble myself before you.” Because first Peter five seven says he cares for you. In other words, he is worthy of your trust with all your anxieties.
Oh, let’s pray. According to this passage, God, in light of 1 Peter 5:6–7, we pray that you would help us to humble ourselves before you under your mighty hand to cast all our anxieties on you. Can we just do that right now? All the things that come to your mind right now that you are anxious or worried about or even prone to be anxious or worried about, can you just cast those before God right now, specifically, God, we cast this, that, this on you. God, we cast our anxieties.
1 Peter 5:6–7 Leads Us to Cast Our Anxieties on God
I think of a variety of things come to my mind right now, things that I’m worried about. God, we cast them upon you and we trust your care for us. We trust your care for us. Thank you for your care for us. Thank you for your love for us. God, as we lay these things before you, as we cast them on you, we say we trust in you and we trust in your mighty hand and your caring hand and your good loving, gracious, merciful, just hand. We trust in you. And we trust that you will exalt us according to your word, as we humble ourselves before you.
God help us to live here. Especially amidst our anxieties and God, we pray this over our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, amidst all their anxieties you would help them. God, we pray, especially that you would bless our brothers and sisters who are working to meet others’ needs in Afghanistan, not even just to care for themselves, but to reach out to others. For those who in different ways are working to meet physical needs among Afghan people.
A Reminder to Pray for the Church in Afghanistan
God, we pray for common grace to result in common good for all the people in Afghanistan. And we pray, especially for your church there and for our brothers and sisters there, that you would help them to meet others’ needs through all kinds of different avenues in ways that point to you as the one who cares for us.
In ways that point to you, Jesus, as the one who said, “Don’t worry about anything, Seek first my kingdom, my righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.” God, we pray for the spread of the gospel and the strengthening of your church in Afghanistan and for strength in our own lives as we humble ourselves before you and cast our cares on you, knowing you care for us. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to your word, we love your word in Jesus’ name we pray according to it. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
