STEP SEVEN
Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Italic]Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you, be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.[/FONT]
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The humble approach called for in step seven is not to be equated with humiliation. God does not want to mortify us but he does want us to submit to his leadership! Peter ties his exhortation to humility to the end times. The “due time,” is the time that God has set for Christ’s return to earth to take his church (believers in him) home to be with the Lord forever. Thus the whole destiny of Christians whether it is suffering or glory is God ordained! Peter then exhorts believers to cast all their anxiety onto the Lord. This casting entails an act of the will and should be carried out prayerfully and in obedience to Jesus’ teaching about anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34). ‘He cares for you,’ certainly means that God is not indifferent to our sufferings. Belief in the sovereignty of God and his fatherly concern for us does not permit us to sit back
and do nothing. We are to work out our own salvation, since it is God who works in us! Peter calls Satan, ‘your enemy the devil,’ and likens him to a lion in search of prey. According to Scripture he has great power on earth but God has most certainly limited his activity. It would be popular opinion that he has only the power of suggestion and after he makes these suggestions we carry them out for him. The Christian response to satanic opposition is not panic or flight but firm resistance in faith! This of course is our positive faith in God’s saving grace.
