6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 1 Peter 5:27

For the last 2 weeks we’ve been looking at ‘Dealing with stuff’. In this penultimate instalment, let us look at these verses that really pack a punch and give us a good basis for our approach to the load of stuff that we get to face and deal with in our lives from anxiety, through guilt & shame right through to depression. There are some gems in these verses that we should hold on to.

1. Humility. Often when we shake our fist at God or when we choose to wallow in self-pity and be so self-absorbed, at that time, that frankly speaking is not the most ideal for us, God may be exposing pride in our hearts. This is potentially the one thing that if we deal with a good percentage of our issues will be well on their way to being solved. We humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and we come to a sobering realisation that He is God and we are not. Crucial! And life changing!

2. Cast your cares on Jesus. Give it all over to Him and don’t hold onto any. There’s a good reason for that – He cares for you! Deeply. Have you ever heard yourself saying “nobody cares”? Well I’m here to tell you that’s simply not true. Jesus cares and that should mean the world to you. So come to him and hand over all that stuff.

3. Be alert. We have an enemy in the devil and his job is to move around and find ways to destroy us. The sooner we realise that the sooner we avert all this stuff becoming too big and too messy and the sooner we allow God to shield us from what could be destructive.

4. Resist him and stand firm in the faith. I hope from point 3 above you don’t get the idea that we are to run away from the devil. No, we resist him. We tell him off and send him packing. And then we stand our ground. We stand on solid ground, on the basis of the truth of God’s character and his very great promises over our lives. We stand immovable.

There we go. That’s how to deal with stuff. And this could be very powerful in your life. Do it! And remember, you are not alone because the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

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