This guest post is from Alesha Sinks. Her blog can be found at aleshablessed.com
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” -1 Peter 5:6-7
As leaders, teachers, pastors, and church planters it’s easy to preach the care of God to others. It’s not hard to tell the lost, the broken, and the hurting how much God cares about them, because we passionately believe that He does.
But when it comes to our ministries, our families, our emotional, financial, or physical security, we often hold tight to our anxieties. We think we need to live up to a certain standard of “goodness” for God and others.
Church planter, church leader, pastor…God cares for you just as much as He cares for the broken people you minister to. And He is okay with you admitting that you are broken too.
Because we all are broken. Maybe we aren’t broken in the easily visible or quickly identifiable ways, but the brokenness exists in each of us as long as we live in this broken world.
We can’t hold onto the illusion that we have it all together and still cast our cares on Him. We can’t lead our bible studies, families, and churches to humble themselves before God without humbling ourselves before Him first.
Private humility before God will lead to public glory for God.
And I used to think that humility and anxiety weren’t very connected, until I read this verse.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” -1 Peter 5:6-7
We can’t let go of our anxieties and our insecurities until we realize that they are not in our control anyways. We can’t cast our anxieties on Him until we recognize that we truly need Him.
We need His strength.
We need His protection.
We need His wisdom.
We need His power.
We need His heart.
We need His leadership.
We need His provision.
We can try and work and struggle and do it all right, but that will never be enough without the power of God helping us. And that takes a realization that we desperately need Him.
Because only when we realize that we are not enough, can God be enough. And only when God is enough, can our anxieties truly be lifted.
Be blessed,
Alesha <3