1 Peter - Following Jesus Sample

This is a wonderful verse! Peter has nearly finished his letter. He is leaving his friends with a number of commands and promises to keep in their minds.

Peter says these words are for ‘all of you’ (v. 5). Here are things that will help every one of these suffering Christians to stand fast in the true grace of God. They will help us too.

• What does Peter tell his friends to do (v. 7)?

Peter assumes that his Christian friends will have all kinds of anxieties chasing around their minds. There is certainly much that might make believers feel anxious. We do not yet see God destroying the proud and lifting up the humble (5:5–6). Today the proud are often flying high while humble believers are often at the bottom of the heap. We know that God will ‘lift [us] up in due time’ (5:6) but that time can seem a long time in coming. We may wonder how much worse things will get. We may wonder how we will cope.

Yet worry does not change our outward circumstances. Worry does not change the future. But anxiety does change our hearts and fill them with pain.

Peter doesn’t want that for his friends. He has a better way to respond to troubling times. He tells his friends to cast all their anxieties on God – not just some of their anxieties but all of them.

This is a wonderful invitation. All those anxious ‘what ifs’ that chase around our heads – we are to give them to God. Take your concerns to God in prayer and leave them with him.

We can hold on to our worries very tightly. We fear that our concerns might get lost in someone else’s in tray if we give them away. But Peter says we can pass our concerns over to God with great confidence.

• Why can we have this confidence (v. 7)?

God cares for us, even more than we do ourselves. What is more, he holds the future in his hands.

Peter has just told these Christians how mighty God’s hand is (5:6). Now Peter reminds his friends that this mighty hand belongs to one who cares for them. This is a tender and very precious truth. God is awesome and almighty but also our loving Heavenly Father.

Pray

Thank God that he cares for you. Cast all your anxieties on him.