Cast your anxiety on him
Day 669, Thursday, June 11
1 Peter 4:12 – Chapter 5
For all of its talk of suffering and persecution, 1 Peter ends with notes of comfort. In 5:6-7 we read, “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.”
However rightly we live and however much we trust in God, experiencing anxiety is an unavoidable part of the human condition. Peter doesn’t condemn it as a lack of faith, but tells us to cast on God because he cares. Faith doesn’t always keep us from being anxious, but it does mean we never face anxiety alone.
And right before the final greetings, Peter offers these encouraging words, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever.”
-Rev. Mark Fleming
Thursday meditation
Psalms 139:13-24
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.
If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Prayer focus
Restore me, O Lord, and make me strong, firm and steadfast.