The passage I read
was I Peter 5:1-10
You can find that passage here:
The verse that most
stood out to me:
3 not
lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
&
5 In
the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of
you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God
opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
but shows favor to the humble.”
As I reflect:
Peter begins here
with a note to the elders among the church.
He is making a point to them to be humble in their trusted position and
seek God’s will, not their own gain. He
is reminding them that it is an opportunity to serve and that their service is
always being watched. They are to be an
example for others in the service of Christ.
He says that they should be shepherds of God’s flock that is under their
care “not because you must, but because you are willing”. When I started serving in my church locally,
I wasn’t thinking about one day being on staff or becoming anyone of noticeable
position in the church. I simply saw
little things like coffee that needed to be made, someone who needed prayer,
trash that was full, and I began filling those needs. I didn’t do it because I wanted someone to
see me, recognize me, and promote me to a position of importance. No, I considered it already a position of
importance to look after others and simply help where I could. I think this mindset would benefit every
member of the body of Christ from the least to the greatest. If we could all just remember that we are privileged
with the opportunity to serve one another and truly count it a blessing to be
used to help someone else, then I think the church would be a better place; the
body of Christ would be a more powerful and capable unit of believers. Far too many seem to be seeking only their
own glory, instead of just looking for how they can serve (even in the least
seen ways).
Peter then turns his
attention to the younger members of the body; those who are not yet mentoring
others and are seeking to learn to stand with Christ. He says to them to submit themselves to their
elders. This doesn’t mean that if an
elder tells you to jump off a bridge you blindly follow what they tell you to
do. There is still a discernment that
must be used in finding elders in this day and age that are following after
Christ with all that they are. Peter is
talking about something that I myself have struggled with in the past. He’s talking about the pride that youth often
bring with them to institutions of fellowship and study. It is easy as an on fire youth in Christ to
come full of your own ideas and your own wisdom and experiences to a new place
and judge those that appear to be in charge.
I’ve done it in the past and must fight against the urge to do it in the
present. The youth Peter speaks of isn’t
just the young in age, but the young in Christ.
Those who haven’t spent years upon years seeking after God and learning
to rely on Him for His wisdom. They are
to submit to the elders in the church so that with their own prejudice aside
they may receive the lessons that will cause them to grow spiritually into a
man or woman of Christ. It is very hard
to learn new things when we come to a table with an “I know” attitude. The centurion in the last study did not come
to Christ with an attitude of “I’m a man of authority and thus you too should
submit to me and listen to how you are going to come to my house and heal my
servant because I command you to.” Nope,
he recognized his position and submitted to Christ knowing his authority was
far greater than his own. Thus should
we esteem our elders giving them the respect of an open ear to listen and learn
from what they have experienced and come to understand in the Word of God.
Peter then says to
all of them, both the elders and the youth in Christ, “clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another”. I picture
this as a uniform for the job at hand.
If you are in the military, you where a certain camouflage that is
appropriate for our current world operations because it is this camouflage that
is most useful for the job at hand. If
you are a construction worker, you have a belt that is capable of holding your
most used tools and nails because this tool belt provides you what is needed to
appropriately do your job without having to run here and there to carry tools
back and forth. The military person
would have little use for the tool belt as they have enough to carry without
nails flying everywhere as they run into battle losing a hammer here and a tape
measure there. The construction worker
would have little use for camouflage on the construction site. It would make that person miserable in the
heat and they would have no where for their most used items to be stored except
the great discomfort that would come from nails sticking into their thigh perhaps
in the cargo pocket. The construction worker
has about as much use of cloaking himself in desert camo as an armed forces
servant has use for a level tool in battle.
We also have an outfit; a uniform for our position as servants of the
most high. Our clothing is
humility. It isn’t designed to cloak us
from our enemies, or to carry tools. For
our outfit is in itself both a weapon against our enemies, and a tool for the
job we must complete. Let us be sure to
where the appropriate outfit for our opportunity to serve lest we find
ourselves stumbling with an outfit of pride that is as ill fit for our position
in the body of Christ as a scuba diver’s outfit would be on a coal miner. It would weigh us down and cause us to
stumble greatly carrying many unnecessary weights, eventually causing us to struggle
even to breath.
Seeing as I have babbled
on and on in my inspiration from the passage, I’ll wrap up with Peter’s last
two points here in brevity. Do not let
satan swap your humility outfit with one of pride. He’s sneaky and it can happen easier than you
may think, so keep a watchful eye for it and purposely chose humility
daily. And lastly, none of this means
anything if you try it without Christ.
Rely on God to guide you and teach you to set the examples you have been
privileged to guide others in. Give God
all the glory and remember it is impossible to stand strong without the solid
foundation that He is in all of our lives.
My response to the
Lord:
Lord, I cast all my cares on you. I know that you can do all things and it is
for this reason that I can rely on you to carry my burdens. Now free in Christ, I have been given privilege
to not only lead others by example, but also to follow some great men that you
have raised up as my examples. Thank you
for my mentors Father. Thank you for
your many lessons and the truth you have given me to light my path. I pray your Holy Spirit keep my eyes open to
the enemy’s snares and keep me humble in your service and the service of others
for you. Lord, gently rebuke me should
my pride ever grow so great that your glory not be seen. Better still Lord, I pray that you rebuke me
before my pride ever be given opportunity to stand in the way. Keep my humble before you my King. Utilize me for your will. Even the least of your will. In Jesus’ name.
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