It is important that we commit to God in good times and in bad times. This devotional looks at submitting to God when our anxiety is higher than it out to be.
Nuggets
- Committing to God becomes our way of life, regardless of our emotional state.
- We must submit everything to God so that our character will be changed to imitate His.
- We must trust God daily today so that we walk with Him.
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Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
One of the hardest things for us to sometimes do is to put our total trust in God when we are riddled with anxiety. Part of it is giving control to Someone else. Part of it is the fear of the unknown.
If we are totally committed to God, we need to ride that commitment during the trying times as well as in the good times. Committing to God — casting our cares on Him — Littleton stated they were the same thing.
Peter talked about how we can accomplish trusting in God even in our anxiety.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of the devotions in this series are Stratham’s Commit Thy Way and Littleton’s Confidence in God.
An Entire Obedience
“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” (1 Pet. 5: 6-7 ESV)
Committing to God becomes our way of life, regardless of our emotional state.
Obedience — and therefore, commitment — has to begin with humility. That is a hallmark of our Christian faith.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
- Christian humility is our yielding our dependence to Christ to serve Him and others.
- Faith is a gift from God and a work of the Spirit that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Glossary
But not being humble is one of the biggest detergents to entire obedience to God. We get a wild hair thinking we don’t need Him.
Why is it so important that we submit to God? Slade helped us understand. He wrote, “Religion is the only source from which true comfort can be drawn, and we see her triumphs manifested in the most remarkable manner when the faithful servant of God is overwhelmed with trouble.”
Resource
We get comfort when we give God our allegiance. That is a good trade.
It is especially good in the atmosphere we have today. They are many things which make us stressful and full of anxiety.
God alone is in control of everything. He alone is mighty enough to provide the comfort. He alone knows what we need.
How we handle our afflictions and adversities is one of our best witnesses. This is us showing what it means to cast our cares on God and reveals the benefits of so doing. We show others what it looks like to daily life rely on God.
Boston reminded us that we have to make the decision to entirely commit to God. No one else can make it for us, and no one else can make us keep it.
But we are talking life-long and lifestyle commitment. We think we work for God to get kudos and to gain skills and knowledge. We see ourselves being elevated.
No, God uses us to show it is not us. Boston explained that this way He wrote, “But what God requires is rather to labour to bring down the heart than to get up the head …” “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor” (Jas. 4: 10 NLT).
Resource
God wants our hearts changed to get to the point we can entirely commit to Him.
This is important because we aren’t taking about some minor afflictions here. We could be taking incurable disease, persecution, poverty — a whole bunch of things.
In other words, God asks us to submit under really hard circumstances.
A Meek Submission
“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5: 7 ESV)
We must submit everything to God so that our character will be changed to imitate His.
There are so many things we worry about — family stuff, work stuff, even religious stuff.
Let’s talk a moment about how we care for others. When something is going on, I can care for Pastor Steve and Adam — but my anxiety level may be through the roof about it.
God’s care has no element of agitation or distress. He has it all under control.
The best thing is that God knows exactly what we are going through and feeling. He knows how what we are going through is going to affect us.
But God’s care for us really isn’t like my care for Pastor Steve or Adam, is it? Or at least not what we define God’s care as!
We think God will fix everything for us. We want him to kiss it and make it all better.
The thing is, that didn’t work when Adam was little. Oh, yeah. I kissed a number of boo boos, but truth be told, any healing benefits were psychological. I didn’t fix anything.
Walker said we do something totally different when we cast our care upon God. He wrote, “To cast our care upon God is to make His will the guide and measure of ours.”
Resource
We take the focus off us and what we want and are feeling. We focus solely on God and His directives. We trust Him as we become totally dependent on Him.
Bonar told us how we are to do this. We cast our cares upon Him by
- Believing that He is perfect in character and that He will provide for us.
- Keeping a sober disposition through all circumstances.
- Patiently and consistently accepting His plan for our lives.
- Walking with Him daily.
Resource
Glossary
We want to make sure we don’t go overboard with our care. As with anything else, something done in excess or not as God commanded is a sin.
A Daily Walk
We must trust God daily today so that we walk with Him.
How does anxiety affect commitment? Vincent told us that. He wrote, “… anxiety carries with it a division of faith between God and self, a lack of faith in God proportioned to the amount of care which we refuse to cast on Him; an excess of self-confidence proportioned to the amount which we insist on bearing ourselves.”
Resource
Anxiety takes our focus off God and puts it on whatever the affliction is. It distracts our heart, which we know is the seat of our thoughts, intellect, will, and affections that produces our character, from which all things spring, including controlling our spiritual position.
Now you see why anxiety is so detrimental to our daily walk? It distracts what controls our spiritual position.
I know we know that, but it is easy to forget that when the afflictions start ramping up. But then, it is just as easy to not believe anxiety has that amount of impact on our spiritual life.
Making the Connections #1
Let’s think about this for a second. Humility isn’t just shown toward God. We also show humility when we interact with others.
We said in the last devotion that we have duties — to God, ourselves, and others. That could play out by taking a behind-the-scenes task within the church to give others the spotlight. Or we may be good with being passed over to fill a role in order that someone else has that opportunity.
Making the Connections #2
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” (Ps. 111: 10 ESV)
It all comes down to trusting God. We have to trust Him enough to give up control – to accept we aren’t going to understand everything and be okay with Him orchestrating our growth.
How Do We Apply This?
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help us with complete submission to God’s Will.
- Acknowledge that it is a blessing to even being allowed into God’s presence.
- Acknowledge our lack of knowledge and understanding of God’s divinity — and be good with it.
- Determine our unconfessed sins and pray for forgiveness.
- Accept God’s mercy.
See God’s hand in our lives. - Possess a true sense of worthlessness in regards to Him.
- Acknowledge our guilt and sinful nature.
- Praise God for His ways and counsel.
- Lay aside our lofty estimations of ourselves.
- Don’t make trouble, especially not the imaginary kind.
- Don’t worry about the future.
- Increase our interest in all things Christ.
- Make it a daily reliance on God.
- Accept God’s decision to either wound us or heal us and grow accordingly.
- Accept this life is temporary and is preparation for our lives in Heaven.
- Sympathize with others.
Resource
Father God. We are looking to You. We commit to You whether we are in good times or in bad times. We praise You for growing us through our daily walk with You. Amen.
What do you think?
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