All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.” 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 alert and of sober mind. 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 fellow believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
—1 Peter 5:5b-11 (TNIV)
Here Peter lays out for us the essence of humility. In any and every circumstance, especially the bad ones, we are to cast our anxiety on God, trusting that he loves us and has not abandoned us even when everything indicates he has. For whatever reason, God has not chosen to reveal all the mystery of suffering to us and we must be content with that. This is where humility comes into play because it is precisely at those times that we must remember that God is God and we are not. Consequently, we should not expect him to treat us as his equals because we most certainly are not. Instead, we must trust him and his love for us. We must keep the cross in the forefront of our thinking, because it is the surest sign of God’s love for and commitment to us.
Of course, none of this is possible without having a real relationship with Christ. Why? Because only then will we learn the trustworthiness of God’s love for us and his character. Only then can we count on the Spirit’s Presence in us, strengthening us in our weakness and reminding us that we are God’s children. If we do not know Jesus, God made man, we can never really know God’s love for us or anything about his character and promises.
To the extent that I am representative of others, having this kind of faith in the midst of awful sickness, sorrow, or any kind of suffering is the hardest thing for us to learn because it means we are no longer in control. But it is the consistent testimony of those who are able to put the kind of trust in Christ that Peter talks about in today’s passage that God does sustain them in the midst of their suffering and that finding joy and peace is possible.
Do you have this kind of Presence and joy in your life? If you do, give thanks to God the way Peter ends today’s passage. Let doxology spring from your lips! If you do not, then it may be time for you to be honest with yourself and your relationship with God (or lack thereof). Ask God to make himself present to you in a way that you can know it. Ask him to remove all doubt and fear and trust his timing. And as Peter reminds us here, resist the Evil One, invoking Christ’s name in doing so because the Evil One is stronger than us, and draw on both the grace and support of Christ and your fellow believers.
In the final analysis, suffering (or at least some aspects of it) will remain a mystery. But we have the promise of God himself that if we trust him, throw our worries and anxieties on him, and ask him to help us bear what we must, we will not be disappointed. In doing so, we learn how to be humble before God and God will reward us beyond our wildest expectations.