1 Peter 5:6-11

We like it simple. Give it to me straight. What do I need to do to be a good Christian? Give me the list. Boil it down for me in simple do’s and don’ts. When I have my list, my operators manual, the deeds I shouldn’t do, the words I shouldn’t say, the actions I should perform, the truths I should proclaim, when I have my list, then I can practice this list. When I don’t do one of these things, or when I do do one of these things, then I’ll repent, I’ll say I’m sorry, and I’ll keep practicing them until I get really good at them. Hopefully, I’ll catch on quickly, and then I can graduate to the next level, where I can notice other people not carrying out the list, and I can help them by pointing out how they’re not quite as good as I am at getting the list done. Simple. Clean cut Christianity.

Except, well, that’s not Christianity. That’s another religion, actually closer to Islam than it is to being a follower of Jesus. There is no list. It’s a life. It’s not simple do’s and don’ts, its surrender. In this season of Christ’s ascension, with Jesus seated at the right hand of God, governing the nations, reigning until all of His enemies are placed under His feet, our relationship to Him can’t just be boiled down to the list. Our relationship to Him is one of total, absolute surrender. Whatever happens, we surrender. Whatever suffering, we surrender. Whatever temptation, we surrender. And in that surrender, humbling ourselves before our King, that’s when we find ourselves, almost without thought or intention, doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts.

Peter has been writing a reality letter. Peter is not trying to gloss over what the life of a Christian looks like. It’s not pretty, sometimes, Peter has been saying. We suffer, sometimes really bad. We are targets, both from the world and from Satan himself. Let’s face it, the life of a Christian is a life of struggle.

So what do we do with this struggle? Do we throw up our hands and run? Do we find a way to compromise, to look like a Christian, but not enough to get anyone mad? Do we buckle down and work harder, and harder, and harder still, until we get that list accomplished? No. Verse 6:

If we want it simple, if we want something to do, some clear assignment that we can work on, then this is it, to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand.

The example we follow, what it means to humble ourselves, comes from Philippians 2:5

We humble ourselves when we become nothing. We humble ourselves when we become empty. The opposite of being proud is being humble. The opposite of being full of ourselves, is being empty of ourselves. We humble ourselves when we are aware that we have nothing to contribute. Our will to keep going is not strong enough to keep us going. Our ability to reason, to figure things out, is not sharp enough to understand anything. Our desire to obey will never conquer our love to sin. We are not able to do anything. Nothing. We have nothing, not even a little bit.

When we get there, when we’ve finally been forced to admit our nothingness, now we have humbled ourselves before God. Anything less, any hint that we have the ability, or the know-how, or the simple determination to do any good, and we’re starting to fill up again, we’re becoming not empty. And we will fail

But if this sounds scary, becoming nothing, emptying ourselves, becoming humble, look again at verse 6. Look where we are humbling ourselves. Look where we are admitting our incompetence.

That’s what makes it possible to be nothing. Thinking we’re something makes us feel pretty good, so thinking we’re nothing can be scary. We might realize how threatened we are, and how little we can do against those threats, and our fear can keep us from admitting our inability.

But not when we’re under God’s. This is how we can say that we can’t. Because it’s not up to us to figure things out and it’s not up to us to fight temptation, it’s not up to us to get the job done. We are surrendered to God’s mighty hand. We’ve let things slip out of our own hands, our weak hands, the hands that couldn’t fix anything, and instead they’ve fallen into God’s mighty hand.

And then look what happens. We become empty, under God’s mighty hand,

We want to be lifted up. First, we’ll try to think our way up, and work our way up, and struggle our way up. And when we have tried long enough, and slipped back down often enough, and gotten enough headaches trying to figure things out, then we’ll realize we are nothing. We will realize we are nothings in the mighty hand of God, and then, at the right time, in a way we never thought possible, He will lift us up.

So, you can’t do anything about the situation you’re in. No matter how much you think about it, it won’t be solved. No matter how many solutions you try, it won’t make any different. You’re not able to fix it, but you are under the mighty hand of God, so, verse 7:

You can’t do anything about solving the problem anyway, so you might as well get rid of it, because He cares for you. And sure, it will seem weird to not be worried about it. It might seem, at first, like you don’t care about what you’re worried about. So, after casting all your anxiety on him, you’ll take it back. It feels normal to carry it around. And then, under His mighty hand, you’ll become empty and you’ll cast them all back. And after a few rounds of this, you’ll start to get used to the joy of emptiness, the relief of being humble. You’ll start to realize that carrying around all this anxiety was a big waste of time, and you won’t even want it back. And then, then, having humbled yourself under the mighty hand of God, He will lift up your hopes, and He’ll lift up your courage. He will lift you up.

The next one isn’t going to be easy. Verse 8:

The devil hates people. First, he hates people because we look like God, and the devil absolutely hates God. But he especially hates people who have Jesus living inside them, whose image of God is becoming clearer and clear all the time, who talk like Jesus talks and acts like Jesus acts. He absolutely can’t stand this. So, he’s on the look out for these Jesus look-alikes. And when he sees one, he comes over, and he gets in front of us, and he roars.

And if we have not humbled ourselves, if we think that there is something we can do to fight the devil, then we’re cooked. He’ll gobble us up, and we will fall. If we think we can fight temptation with our own will power, by us just choosing to think about other things, or do something different, we’ll fail, and we will sin. We can’t fight a lion. We can’t beat the devil.

But when we’ve humbled ourselves under the mighty hand of God, empty of ourselves, without any ability on our own, but trusting totally in the strength and love and power of God, we will calm down. Under the mighty hand of God, we’re safe. The devil can roar all he wants, he can’t get us. If we slip out from under God’s hand, to try to take on the devil ourselves, then he’ll grab us and pull us under. But humbly hiding under God’s hand, we’re calm, we’re self-controlled. We’re alert, we know what’s out there, we don’t give in and leave the protection of God. We, verse 9:

When temptation comes roaring, our first thought, our first action, is to turn to Jesus and give up. We tell Him, "I can’t do this. I’m not able. You have to fight this for me." And He will. Up, over the temptation, He will lift you up.

And, verse 10:

Strong, firm, steadfast. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? A lot better than being anxious. A lot better than being weak in temptation. Strong, firm, steadfast. The way we’re supposed to be.

But if this is on our list of things to do, the way to be, if we’re hearing this as a command, "You be strong, you be firm, you be steadfast", and if we start to get to work on keeping ourselves strong and firm and steadfast, then we will fail. It’s not up to us to be strong. Remember? We can’t. We gave that up a ways back, there. There’s a paradox here, kind of a puzzle. If we’re trying to be strong, we won’t be. If we give up, to the mighty hand of God, we will.

I don’t know what kind of weakness you’re going through, but each of us has something going on. Some of us hide it better than others, but each of us carries our anxieties, or is hearing the roaring of temptation, or is suffering from the evil of another person. And sometimes, a lot of the times, it’s all three. And we push against the worries and we fight against the temptation and we try to solve the problems and we try to do the right thing, and we can’t. We come back to the worries and the sins and the problems, and they just don’t seem to ever quit.

Until we quit. Until we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Until we have emptied ourselves of all hope in our own ability. Until we have become nothing. And then, and it sounds strange, but then, when we are completely weak, God starts to make us strong. When we have stopped trying to find solid ground ourselves, then He makes us stand firm. When we have given up trying to be faithful, in our own faithfulness, then He makes us steadfast.

I know it seems strange and backwards. And at first it will be a little scary to turn everything over to God, our worries, our resistance to sin, our reaction to suffering. We’ll turn it over, and then we’ll take it back, and then we’ll turn it over and then we’ll take it back again.

But as we go through these cycles, we’ll notice something. The circumstances might not get better, but our hope will grow stronger. The suffering might not disappear, but our worries will. The temptations might actually grow stronger, but so will our ability to resist. And this is God, lifting us up. Higher, and higher, stronger and stronger, more holy, more sanctified, more faithful.

Until we’re home, completely strong, completely steadfast, completely without worry or temptation, completely free from suffering. And we’ll have gotten there not because we tried so hard, not because we figured things out, not with our own will power, but because we were nothing, empty, powerless in the mighty hand of God.

That’s why, in heaven, and even now, we shout out, verse 11:

Because it’s not our power, it’s not our strength, it’s not ourselves. We’re nothing, empty, humble under the mighty hand of God, who lifts us up.