Thoughts on 1 Peter - Day 23

                                    1 Peter 5:4-7

⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
⁵ In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

      Do you have control issues? In other words, do you feel the need to be in control and when you aren't, it makes you extremely anxious? I think this may be the type of anxiety that Peter is discussing here.  Any time you humble yourselves or submit to someone, you are surrendering control to them. I see this manifested in medicine.  Some people are extremely scared of having surgery and being put to sleep. When I ask why it usually has to do with loss of control. Some patients come in with a long list of how they want their labor and delivery to be handled. Some of these people,  not all, are just afraid of surrendering control to the doctor. I also see this played out in marriage. A wife, being commanded in the Bible to let the husband lead can have great difficulty in this if she is a person that needs to feel in control. Peter says to cast all your worries and anxiety on Jesus.  He cares for you and He is in control.  Do you believe that?

     Therefore, I can now submit to the person in charge without worrying if they are going to make all the right decisions or not.  I don't need to micromanage. Let's say you are on a mission trip and you have to be to the airport at a given time. You are currently under the authority of the leader of the trip. The leader is late picking you up,  drives slow,  gets gas, takes the wrong turn.  Meanwhile you are having anxiety because you are under the control of someone who doesn't plan ahead like you. You finally get to the airport and you missed your flight. How do you respond?  Probably not in love.  Probably not in humility or gentleness.  You actually at that point might decide to quit being under authority.  What would Peter say? He would say do you trust that God is the ultimate authority and he has your good at heart? How do you look at things then? Maybe you think about that God has someone for you to meet while you are delayed. Maybe He just wants to work on your control issues. Whatever it is, it is for your good.

       I talked to a guy at the gym the other day and he said,  and he is a Christian,  " if Hilary Clinton gets elected, I'm leaving the USA and moving to the Phillipines. A person with a little money can live like a king there." There's a problem there and that problem is that he thinks Hilary would be in control.  She isn't, Trump isn't, Obama isn't- God is.  Relax, He has you covered...forever.

Lord, help me to see the big picture.  Help me to remember that you are in control and thus help me to surrender control to Earthly authorities. Amen.