Encouragement in SufferingSample

Pray: A Way To Humble Yourself Before God

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.

God tells us to humble ourselves, and there are many ways we do that. One of those ways is to pray. We humble ourselves when we come to God in prayer and cast all our anxieties upon him.

The proud person does not pray. He will not pray. He cannot pray. The proud person feels, deep inside, “I can do this myself. I’ve got this.” Oh, he usually doesn’t say that out loud, but his actions do. By his actions, he declares, “I can handle this myself.” His actions give him away.

By contrast, the humble person thinks, “I cannot handle this on my own. Lord, I need you. In fact, if you don’t come through for me, I’m sunk. Lord, please rescue me. Lord, please take care of this problem. Lord, help!” 

We humble ourselves when we call out to God and tell him of all our anxieties. We humble ourselves, and exalt the Lord, because we implicitly declare, “Lord, You can take care of this problem. Lord, You are able, You are mighty, You are God. You are my strong Deliverer and You care about me. You are good. I can trust you with this problem because You are a trustworthy God.”

We exalt God when we cry out to Him, when we humble ourselves. And the result? We receive God’s peace. We give God our anxiety, and God gives us His peace. Humility always brings peace. Pride always brings anxiety.