Listen again to some of the words from that last song: “Whate’er my God ordains is right / Here shall my stand be taken / Though sorrow, need, or death be mine / Yet I am not forsaken / My Father’s care is round me there / He holds me that I shall not fall / And so to Him I leave it all / And so to Him I leave it all.”

Sorrow, need, death—things we all suffer. Yet with humility the song teaches us to say, “Whate’er my God ordains is right.” You also hear the assurance that God cares: “My Father’s care is round me there.” Also, the trust to say, “And so to him I leave it all.” The same themes appear in our passage today.

We’re going to be in 1 Peter 5:6-11. If you’re using a pew Bible, that’s on page 1017. How does anyone stand firm when suffering in Jesus’ footsteps? That’s a question Peter has been answering from different angles. One of those angles is humility. It takes humility to accept God’s plan over our own, especially when that plan includes suffering. But God’s plan also holds out great promise. Look at it with me in verses 6-11:

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

As I’ve said before, 1 Peter was written to help sojourners stand firm in God’s grace when suffering in Jesus’ footsteps. There’s no question that Peter’s audience faces suffering for Jesus’ sake. The concern is how to keep going when suffering comes.

Any Christian who’s suffered knows the kinds of questions that arise: “Are things spinning out of control?” “Am I alone?” “Lord, do you even care?” “Will I make it?” Or, if you haven’t suffered directly, you know Christians who have, and you wonder, “Could I endure suffering like that?” “How is this possible for us to keep going?”

God’s word through the Apostle Peter helps us stand firm in suffering. Three words will help organize the message in verses 6-11: humility, resistance, and promise.

Humble Yourselves before God

Let’s look first at humility in verses 6-7. If you’re going to stand firm in suffering for Jesus, you need humility before God. In verse 6, the word “therefore” builds on the quote in verse 5 from Proverbs 3:34. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” John Calvin called that verse a “celestial thunderbolt to make men humble.”[i] The proud elevate themselves to replace God—so God opposes them. But the humble know they are nothing without God. God gives grace to those who lower themselves. He gives grace to those who know they need grace.

So, if that’s the case, Peter says “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” In Scripture, God’s “hand” often pictures his sovereign control. Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” Or Acts 4:28, speaking about the evil people who crucified Jesus. They gathered “to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

God directs everything in life; and in a letter like 1 Peter, that includes our suffering. In 1:7, our suffering is part of God’s will to purify us. In 3:17, it’s better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will.” In 4:19, “Let those who suffer according to God’s will.” God’s hand may cause you to face suffering for Jesus; and Peter says that humility will accept whatever God’s hand brings. Humility will say, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Humility accepts God’s will over our own.

At the same time, God’s “mighty hand” recalls the Exodus. God was known as the one who delivers his people by a “mighty hand” and an “outstretched arm.”[ii] For us, the cross of Christ is where God’s hand worked most mightily for our deliverance. So, the sovereign hand that controls the sufferings that enter our lives is the same hand that brings us deliverance in Jesus. Thus, even when God’s hand brings hardships, we can trust his purpose is good and he’s working for our deliverance. Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.”

Humility also means accepting God’s timing over our own. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” We love singing about the cross. But when we’re asked to take up our own cross, suddenly we’re not so thrilled. In 1 Peter that includes blessing those who curse us, doing good to your enemies, suffering to serve someone else that might treat you badly—why is this so hard? Because our sinful nature doesn’t like being lowly, treated like a servant.

We’re bent on thinking too highly of ourselves. We want glory now. That’s why we get so concerned with other people’s opinions—we want them to see our glory. That’s why we can get so concerned with status, or disappointed when others don’t put us forward. That’s why people count the number of “Likes” on social media. Our sinful flesh wants the praise of man. But Peter is saying the praise of God is far better.

Peter got these things from Jesus: “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Now, sometimes God will vindicate a Christian in this life. Earlier Peter spoke of how our good behavior in Christ might put others to shame when they slander us. But that phrase, “at the proper time,”—it looks ultimately to the end when Jesus returns in glory. 1:5 called it “the last time.” 2:12 called it “the day of visitation.” That’s the greatest moment when God will exalt his people. Question is, do you trust his timing? Or do you find yourself wanting that exaltation now?

Humility also depends on God’s strength over our own. We see this in verse 7. Some of you might be using the NIV translation. The NIV has “Cast all your anxiety on him.” True, but that doesn’t capture Peter’s point as well as other translations. Peter isn’t adding another command in verse 7. He’s explaining how we humble ourselves: “by casting all your anxieties on him.” A friend of mine Evan Taylor put it this way: “Humility is not simply about accepting your inadequacy and your undeservedness of God’s favor. It’s also about trusting in God’s sufficiency and his tenderness.”

What sort of anxieties are you facing in the path of obedience? The same word behind “anxieties” is elsewhere translated “worries” or “burdens.” What burdens might you be facing? Psalm 54:23 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” In context there, the “burden” was that a close companion was unfaithful to David. His best friend broke covenant with him. “His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart.” Have you ever poured yourself out for someone, and that’s how you’re treated in return? Psalm 54 calls that a “burden.”

Peter’s audience experienced similar “burdens,” “anxieties.” In 2:13, he commanded Christians to submit to every human institution. In his day, that was Nero. It’s not hard to imagine anxieties that arise from having to submit to an immoral ruler. A similar scenario comes in 2:18—slaves must submit to unjust masters. Then in 3:6, we discussed various worries that might come for a wife when she submits to a husband that doesn’t obey the word. In 4:4, others will malign us for not joining in their sins; and that too would create its own anxieties socially. Will I keep my job, my friends?

We could probably name other worries that come: “What will I say if they object? Will they think I’m crazy? What if I’m left all alone? If they treat me this way, will I keep the faith? What if they fire me for not going along? How will I pay the bills? If I give myself so freely, how can I know I won’t be hurt again?” On and on the anxieties might go. Pride will try to bear it alone. Pride will start scrambling to control the outcomes instead of depending on the Lord. Pride will say, “Ah, skip prayer; I got this!” Pride is self-sufficient. It pretends to be God instead of needing God.

But humility will cast all (not “some”) your anxieties on the Lord. That happens mainly through prayer and trust. Philippians 4:6 says, “don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Peter is saying something similar.

Have you ever been carrying something that’s too heavy—and you shout, “A little help!” Then you transfer that crushing weight onto the care of others. Something similar happens in prayer. We transfer the weight of our anxieties/burdens onto the Lord. Like the song said earlier: “And so to him I leave it all.”

Then we trust that, as it says here, “he cares for you.” He has the power to carry it; and he loves carrying it. Do you believe God cares for you? I think I’d often say, “Of course I believe God cares for me!” But then I hear this text saying back at me, “Then why you so anxious about that meeting? Why you still so worried about tomorrow? Why you so concerned about being enough? Why you keep playing that reel of “the worst is going to happen”?” Do you know God cares? Truth is, in the specifics, there are still ways I function like he doesn’t care, even when I say he does.

And that exposes my pride, doesn’t it? A pride that says, “If I know the future, then I can stay in control, and I can protect myself, and I can plan, and I and I and I…” In the end, we think that we are more caring than God. But humility embraces God’s care. Humility happens by casting all your anxieties on the Lord, because he cares for you. If you’re going to make it in suffering, you must learn to rest in God’s tender care.

Didn’t Jesus walk this road before us? Didn’t Jesus humble himself before the Lord when he took the form of a servant? Didn’t Jesus accept the Father’s will, even when that led to him suffering in our place? Didn’t Jesus cast all his anxieties upon the Lord when he prayed in Gethsemane, “If possible, Lord, let this cup pass from me”? And didn’t Jesus trust the Father’s care throughout—even to his last breath when he said, “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” Brothers and sisters, Jesus walked this road before us; and at the proper time, God exalted him.

But consider this as well: if you struggle with doubts in your suffering about whether God cares for you, look again at the cross. Your greatest burden is not your job complications, your failing health, your family problems, your financial uncertainties, your ongoing depression, your losses in this life. Your greatest burden is your own sin and guilt that separates you from God; and that infinitely greater burden was placed on Jesus and taken away at the cross. If God is willing to carry that burden to the grave, to have you (unworthy as you are), to hold you, to give you all himself, then he cares for you. He loves you with a great love. He will care for you in these lesser burdens.

He will carry whatever burden is on your heart today with ease. His shoulders won’t even flinch when you cast your burdens on him. His face won’t even grimace. His eyes won’t roll. With pure delight in receiving you, he will take them all. It’s his joy to give grace to those who humble themselves before him. So cast your anxieties upon the Lord. He doesn’t leave us in suffering. He cares for us in suffering.

Resist the Devil

Standing firm requires humility; it also requires resistance. If you’re going to stand firm in suffering, you must resist the devil. Verse 8 repeats a command we’ve heard twice before in 1 Peter, “Be sober-minded.” That means we resolve to live in a way that’s sensible. We’re not controlled by emotions and passions of the flesh. Your mind is in the right order to act according to God’s word in any given circumstance.

The other command is, “Be watchful.” Stay alert. Don’t be caught off guard. Why is it (usually) in movies that people can sneak into buildings or capture somebody else? Because the guards aren’t manning their posts or they’re goofing off or distracted by other things. I was reminded of C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. The senior tempter Screwtape writes to a young protégé, Wormwood, that a key strategy against Christians was distraction. No matter how small, the point was to gradually get us doing nothing. “Nothing is very strong,” Screwtape says, “strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them.” And the goal? To gradually edge the Christian away from the light of Christ.[iii]

Peter says, we must “Stay watchful!” Spiritually alert—that we might not be lulled to sleep in our comforts and leisure and mindless scrolling on our phones—when a lion is on the prowl. Earlier he pictured the church as a bunch of sheep—5:2, we are “the flock of God.” But now he describes a fierce predator. He says, “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

The New Testament teases this out in many ways. In Ephesians 4:26-27, the Devil works to destroy relationships when we stay angry instead of reconciling. In 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, he devours when there’s a lack of forgiveness to someone who repents. 1 Corinthians 7:5-9 mentions the Devil tempting others with sexual immorality. In James 3:15, he uses jealousy and selfish ambition. In Genesis 3, the devil works by questioning God’s word, “Did God say?” Sometimes he uses teachers that seem okay, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. In Revelation 13, he works through an interconnected web of religious lies, political powers, and economic incentives.

Peter might have all those in mind. But another way he seeks to devour Christians is through suffering/persecution. That’s why Peter says, “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” The Devil uses suffering as an attempt to devour us.

He uses suffering and death to frighten us, much like a terrorist seeks to control others with the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14 describes the Devil as having the power of death; and people become enslaved to him out of fear of losing their lives. He also uses lies in our suffering. Lies like, “God doesn’t care, or he wouldn’t be letting this happen to you.” Lies like, “Wouldn’t life be better without all this suffering?” Lies like, “You deserve better than this.” Lies like, “You’re all alone in this.”

Peter says here, “Resist him.” Stay alert to his tactics and resist him. Suffering can isolate you. It either makes you feel alone; or it literally makes you alone. Some are imprisoned by themselves. Others have loved ones stripped from them. Others might be forced to flee their families and homes—alone. But Peter points out that we’re not alone. The same sufferings are being experienced by the brotherhood worldwide.

The Devil is a liar when he whispers, “You’re all alone.” Our sufferings for Christ show that we belong to a greater family, the family of God, spread all over the world. They need our prayers, and we need theirs. They need our love and support; and we need theirs. Part of resistance is keeping our focus outward on that bigger picture.

But Peter also turns us upward in our resistance. Resisting the Devil doesn’t come by mustering up strength from within. We resist by looking upward to Christ. “Resist him,” he says, “firm in your faith.” What does faith do? It looks away from self to Christ. Faith involves a trustful reliance on Christ. We resist the Devil by trusting in Christ. It’s in Christ that we find our victory over the Devil.

Isn’t that how the saints overcome the Devil in Revelation 12? John pictures him as a great red Dragon, full of wrath and fury against the church. He spews a flood of temptations and trials. But how do the saints overcome? “They have conquered him [because of] the blood of the Lamb…” Keep your eyes outward to see what God is doing worldwide; and keep your trust upward in Christ.

God’s Promise of Future Grace

Humility. Resistance. Peter also gives us a promise. If you’re going to stand firm in suffering for Jesus, you need God’s promise of future grace. It’s there in verse 10: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

Notice how Peter doesn’t encourage them. He doesn’t say, “You’re going to live your best life now.” He doesn’t say, “Your faith will give you prosperity and ease.” He doesn’t say, “Things will be fine.” No, he once again acknowledges that suffering is part of following Jesus: “after you have suffered a little while.”

Remember that little phrase, “a little while”? We saw it in 1:6, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you’ve been grieved by various trials.” By saying “a little while,” he doesn’t mean our trials can’t last a lifetime. On many occasions, Christians following Jesus will endure a lifetime of suffering. Some die because of the length and severity of their trials. But in light of his “eternal glory in Christ,” the trials are only “a little while.” Forty years, sixty years, eighty years—compared to eternity, only a little while.

Still, Peter gets real: following Jesus won’t mean an easier life now. There was more suffering to come. That’s been the pattern of 1 Peter—trials and then glory; suffering and then glory; humiliation and then glory.[iv] We find it here too: “after you have suffered.” Is that a hard word to receive: “after you have suffered”? Don’t forget: always in the Christian life, the cross precedes the crown.

But notice too the assurance of verse 10. God is the “God of all grace.” He is the source of grace; and he is the one who grants every grace necessary. There’s never a moment in suffering when you need to worry, “Does he have enough for me?”

Also notice the link between calling and glory. “Calling” here isn’t just a general call to faith—in the sense of an invitation. It’s an effectual summons. In 2:9 it said that God “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” This calling converted you; it brought you to Jesus.

And it also has a goal: “he called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” God doesn’t mess up. If he called you in Christ, then he will supply all you need to make it to glory. No matter how bad the suffering gets, it won’t be the end of you. 1:5 put it this way: “by God’s power we are being guarded through faith.” The God who graciously calls us is the same God who graciously keeps us.

Peter says, “he will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Peter piles on the words as if to say, God will come through for you in every way imaginable—both in the present and especially in glory. In suffering for Jesus, there are a lot of things that will be left undone in this life. Persecutors will get away with injustice. Losses can’t be replaced. People will stay separated. Many of your questions will go unanswered. But through it all, God promises you future grace.

He will eventually restore—everything lacking will be complete; everything broken will be rightly ordered. He will confirm—inwardly, the Lord will not allow you to be shaken. His strength will be your strength. He will establish you—he will make you like a solid foundation, which might recall the church being built up as God’s temple and look forward to the church as that unshakable New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. You will be made right; all things will be made right.

And how can we be so sure? Because he alone has dominion forever. Verse 11 says, “To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Imagine writing those words when Caesar claimed all dominion. Imagine saying that in a culture that thought Rome would have dominion forever. Saying that Jesus has dominion forever might get you charged with treason: “Swear allegiance to Caesar, or else!” But a text like this recalls what we read in 1:24—that the glory of human kings and kingdoms are like the flower of grass. They wither and fall. But God’s dominion is forever.

What a great reminder in suffering. Suffering will often test our allegiance. Will we love Christ more than country? Will we love God more than money? Will we fear his Word more than what people can do to us or say about us? Verse 11 reminds Christians that God is worthy of all our allegiance. He alone has dominion forever.

But it also reminds us of something else. When you step back and look at the whole, you also realize that the One who has dominion forever, is also the One who cares for you back in verse 6. You couldn’t ask for any greater Helper in suffering. The One with all power loves you and chooses to invest in you. The One with all dominion has chosen to give you all grace, that you might not falter in suffering but make it to glory.

Samuel Rutherford was a Presbyterian pastor in Scotland in the mid-1600s. For some time, he was sentenced to Aberdeen Prison for non-conformity. But his letters from prison ended up making the largest impact on others, especially when he talks about his sufferings and God’s sufficient grace. This is how humility talks in suffering…

“Oh, what I owe to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of My Lord Jesus! Who has now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goes through His mill, and His oven, to be made bread for His own table. Grace tried is better than grace, and it is more than grace; it is glory in its infancy!…Who knows the truth of grace without a trial? And how soon would faith freeze without a cross!…Truly [Christ] has not put me to a loss by what I suffer; He owes me nothing; for in my bonds how sweet and comfortable have the thought of Him been to me, wherein I find a sufficient recompense of reward! How blind are my adversaries who sent me to a banqueting house, to a house of wine, to the lovely feasts of my lovely Lord Jesus, and not to a prison, or place of exile!”[v]

In another letter he says, “Whether God come to His children with a rod or a crown, if He comes Himself with it, it is well. [I am sure of this]: it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside, and draw aside the curtains, and say ‘Courage, I am your salvation,’ than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God.” It was in prison that Rutherford experienced the Lord humbling him; and it was from that place of humiliation that Rutherford learned how much the Lord cared for him.

The Lord cares for you too, beloved. So, humble yourself by casting all your anxieties upon him; and at the proper time, the Lord will exalt you—he will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

________

[i] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1855), 148.

[ii] Exod 3:19; 32:11; Deut 3:24; 4:34; 5:15; 6:21; 7:8, 19; 9:26; 11:2; 26:8; Josh 4:24; 1 Kgs 8:42; 2 Chron 6:32; Ps 89:13; cf. Isa 41:10.

[iii] Taken from Letter 12 in C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters.

[iv] 1 Pet 1:5-7; 2:12; 3:18-22; 4:13, 19; 5:1, 4.

[v] Samuel Rutherford, “A Letter from Aberdeen Prison” (January 1, 1637), accessed at https://wicketgate.co.uk/issue52/e52_7.html.