My biggest weakness
1 Peter 5:5-7 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Alright, let’s start dissecting and defining this verse out for us. In 1 Peter, a major theme is submission, and that is continued here in chapter 5. Being that I’m a fairly intelligent 20 year old kid, (that’s right, I called myself a kid), submission is where I have a large problem, so this isn’t just for all you readers, it’s for me too.
Anyway, Peter here is exhorting all the young people to submit to the elders. Now, elders in the Bible can mean one of two things: an older person, or someone in Pastoral authority. In this case it is referring to Pastoral staff, however, I believe the inverse is true as well, that it could most definitely be applied to anyone who is considered older than you, and it could apply to people that are above you in the organization you work in.
Basically, this verse could be boiled down to this: every time you have an opportunity to deny yourself and be humble, not just to someone in authority over you, but to anyone and everyone around you, take it as an opportunity to be humble under God’s hand, because that what it is. When we do not submit one to another we are being proud, we are counting ourselves better than the other.
Let’s talk about submission for a minute. It makes me think of the Dennis comics. In one comic, he gets in trouble, and is told to go sit in the corner. He sits in the corner, but there is a thought bubble over his head as he thinks to himself “On the outside, I’m sitting down, but on the inside, I’m standing up.” Submission is doing it on the inside and the outside.
Now, about God resisting the proud. Did you know that God created the universe? Seriously. How many times do we actually think about the kind of power and might that went into creating this universe? About how big and vast the universe is? Well, the Bible tells us how big the universe is to God.
Isaiah 40:12
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
A span is measured as the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended, or nine inches. The entire universe is only nine inches to God. Do you really want Him resisting you?
So, now comes the question: how do we humble ourselves under the might hand of God? We can clearly see how mighty God’s hand is because of how big his hand is compared to the universe. So how do go about being humble? It’s simple: cast all your cares upon Him. I don’t think that these verses are separate. In fact, the colon in verse 6 tells me that they are not separate. When you cast all your cares upon God, then you can submit to what He wants you to do. The Bible tells us that He cares for us, and as such begs us to cast our cares upon Him, and when we do so, we can humble ourselves, and He will exalt us in His time.