"...and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:5b-7 Also at the retreat we looked at this verse in relation to forgiveness. It was pointed out that trouble forgiving can often, if not always, be related to pride. Here anxiety seems to be related to pride. It's talking about humble yourself, bask in God's grace, and cast your anxiety in the matter on Him. I always took the "cast your cares" verse out of context, apparently, as my everyday worries. But maybe pride issues and everyday worries are not so different after all. Why do moms worry about their kids? Why do dads worry about making ends meet? Could it be we're taking more than our fair share of the load? We are certainly responsible to train up our children, take care of them and to pay our bills. But as long as we perform our duties, we can certainly entrust our lives to the Lord. It's a challenge for me to check my heart. Have I entrusted my whole life to the Lord? Especially the details that only He can know and affect? Am I trying to take responsibility for that part I have no ability for? Is that why I am anxious? I think so. Why do I do that? Why would I try to do God's work? I submit it's pride because I'm not submitting in areas I should. God is wise and wonderful, but this means so much to me...Not consciously do I try to usurp God's authority or overrule His wisdom, but subconsciously I am. When we find ourselves becoming anxious, I think we need to check our hearts and spirits. I believe we're not trusting the hand of God, who so beautifully sustains us. He won't let us fall from His hand and care, but in our pride we tend to slip out of Jesus' yoke and try to carry more than our share of the load. No wonder we're anxious! No wonder we need God's grace! How comforting to know it's always there as we humble ourselves once again.

Forgiveness

This past weekend our church had a retreat. The topic was forgiveness, what it is and why it's important. As Christians, it's important because it is the heart of the Gospel of Christ. Our forgiveness by God is the Gospel. As His reflection to the world, we must also forgive. We aren't perfect reflections, but as God's forgiveness for us is ongoing, so should our forgiveness of others. We were challenged to have an attitude of forgiveness. I heard what was to me a new definition of forgiveness. It was "to lift the burden off another; to let go, to release [like opening your hand]; to exercise grace towards someone." Isn't that what it feels like when God forgives us? Isn't it beautifully and totally freeing! When we are in an attitude of forgiveness towards others something great happens to us. As we open our hand we are relinquishing our power over them and releasing our inadequate means and our own direction. But we aren't left to emptiness. We receive God's power, God's means and God's direction for us. It's a win win situation. We aren't saying whatever happened to us was okay or that they are right. What we are saying in forgiving is what grace was given to us, we extend to others. It's part of our conformity to Christ's image and is our obedience to our Lord. Oh, what joy again can be ours as we purify our hearts by forgiving (releasing) the pain to let God deal with what we cannot! What a wonderful God we serve! What a gracious Father we have!