Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you!

Kids fight to go to bed. They have all kinds of reasons to avoid sleep and they summon all their strength to resist, but the longer they go without sleep, the more angry, confused and weak they become. Eventually, even the most valiant efforts against going to bed fail, and the power of sleep takes over to restore the tired body and mind.

Kids are not the only ones who fight what is best for them. Teenagers fight curfews, young adults fight against authority, adults question their boss and seniors ignore the limits of their aging bodies. We all think we know best, but we all have limits. Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 40, points us away from ourselves to the One without limits who knows best,

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

Without God, we have limits. Without God we even fight against what is best for ourselves. Without God we are like what the kids heard about in Kingdom Kids today in the account of David and Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17, the Israelites were at war with the Philistines who wanted to settle the battle by having one Israelite soldier fight their soldier Goliath who would tower over today’s NBA players. The Israelite army thought they knew best and did not fight him, but the teenager and future King David was ready to face Goliath. The Lord was with David and gave him the victory over Goliath.

Thinking we know best fills us with anxiety. In our New Testament reading from 1 Peter 5, Peter wrote to Christians suffering for their faith. With their suffering came the temptation to give up the faith to stop their suffering. In response to this temptation, Peter wrote,

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.

Humility before God was the answer because pride was in the hearts of the early Christians. Pride is the disease of the devil who wants Christians to think they know best, even better than God. Peter wrote about the devil in 1 Peter 5, 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The devil wanted the early Christians to believe God did not care about them in their suffering so that they would abandon their faith, but earlier in 1 Peter 2, Peter gave the reason why Christians suffer, 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Christians suffer because they are foreigners and exiles, strangers in this world. Unbelievers who embrace sin and reject God, also reject Christians and their godly lifestyle. Christians are suffering strangers, which leads to anxiety, the worry that there is no end to suffering, not even with God.

The devil fuels your anxiety. The devil hates you. The devil is not another source of life or purpose as if equal to God, but a rebellious limited creature like a roaring lion ready to consume and destroy. Consider how long you spend each day worried, overwhelmed, unsure, questioning, doubting, etc. Those are the devil’s claws holding you down. Your time devoured by anxiety has a negative effect on you. Do not confuse anxiety with some form of humility as if humility was for the weak. No, anxiety is a form of pride, a state of mind where you function under the delusion that you know what is best, but it is not happening, that you are the one who sees and understands the world and how things should play out or will play out. False, you do not know all things and you do not know the best things, nor does the devil. Only God knows all things. Do not let anxiety live in your heart, it poisons your relationship with God. Do not let anxiety live in your heart, it is the devil’s fuel to burn up faith.

Unlike the devil, God cares for you. Humility before God recognizes that you are weak and that it is his mighty hand alone that lifts you up making you strong. Confident in God, Peter encourages us with these words from 1 Peter 5, 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. God works universally for believers. He is our source of strength to resist the devil. We hear how Jesus resisted the devil in Matthew 4, 10 “Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” Jesus quoted Scripture to fight against the devil. We use the same weapon against him. God also works through his Word as a weapon for us to fight against the devil’s temptations of pride and anxiety. While we resist the devil, we will suffer at the hands of those who are against God, but God has promised that we will not suffer forever. Peter wrote, 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. God will restore you, just as he saved you and brought you to himself as Peter wrote earlier in 1 Peter 3, 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. Jesus also suffered. He was rejected by the world and attacked by the devil, but his suffering ended with salvation and life. God is the source of life, he saved you, he gives you purpose and he cares for you. The reason you are a suffering stranger here is because your home is with God in heaven as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1,

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

You will continue to suffer anxiety. Each day the devil works on you to bring up new reasons to be anxious and remind you of the all the anxious thoughts from your past. From the devil, unbelievers, even family and friends, you will suffer for your faith as they mock you for quoting Scripture and turning to God as a remedy for troubles, guilt, sickness, war and death. Resist listening to them and giving into the pride of thinking you know best because God is on your side. We are in the season of the church year or series of Epiphany, where Jesus reveals his power as the Chosen One, the Christ, the Son of God. The Epiphany moment today is that Jesus has the power over demons as we hear in our Gospel reading from Mark 1, 32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Jesus proved his power through miraculous healings and driving out demons. God limits the harmful power of the devil and demons. Jesus kept the demons quite so that the testimony as to who he was would not be revealed by evil. Instead, Jesus proved himself in his triumph over sin, death and the devil as is written in 1 Peter 2, 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” You have been healed and now you get to live for righteousness. One way to live for righteousness is to ask others what makes them anxious and share what makes you anxious. Then, share these Scriptures from 1 Peter about the mighty hand of the God of all grace. And finally, go to God in prayer together casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Although kids fight to go to bed, parents put them to bed every night because they care for them. Suffering and the devil fan our anxiety into flame threatening to destroy our faith in God. The truth of our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 40 applies to all of us, 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. God is the cure and power, the one who knows all things and cares for you. Rather than spend your days consumed by anxious thoughts, go to God in his Word. 1 Peter is five chapters. Rather than spend your time consumed by anxious thoughts, read all five chapters of 1 Peter each day this week. Read all five chapters seven times. Then, each day, pray, suffer, resist and stand firm, 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.