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When a low self-esteem is a really good thing.

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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 Peter 5:6-7 ESV)

I have come to fully believe that the most important characteristics about me is what I believe about myself and what I believe about God.

This week we studied (among other things) how our posture toward God should be: humble. God’s Word has much to say about who we really are without God, and how we should consider ourselves. Yet humility is a hard thing to gauge and a hard thing to “achieve”.

In a world where we are constantly told—even in Christian circles—that we are to hold our head up high, strengthen ourself and be the best person, Christian, mom, and wife we can be, humility can be a challenge.

Thankfully, Peter gives us some components to humility in this week’s passage.

 

just so much fluff

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Look for His mighty hand.

Try to imagine your life without the grace of God. You may have experienced the depths of great sin before you came to know the Lord; addiction, betrayal, or other deep, dark valleys. If you have experienced His rescue and redemption in your life in powerful ways, a humble view of who you really are may come easy for you.

Yet, there are many of us (of whom I am one) who have a pretty “clean” past. No arrests to tell of, or addictions to kick. We’ve been faithful and fruitful. The good little girls. 

A posture of humility is a difficult place to find if you never see what you’ve been saved from. God’s restraining grace is often over-looked. 

Had I dated a different guy in High School, I am certain I would not have been a virgin when I married my husband. Instead, God sent me a boy who was careful about how we spent our time together. This is God’s restraining grace. Though I swore I would never “do it” before I was married, I know now—without a doubt—that if I had been given enough time and opportunity things would be different.

Though much has changed in my life since then, I realize that much is still the same. Just like an un-tethered boat sitting idle in the water yet slowly drifting to the dangers of the open waters, without God’s restraining grace I will desert my babies, get into great debt, become a glutton, or cheat on my husband. 

You will, too. 

In other words, you are not the good little girl you think you are. It is only as we realize that it is by God’s mighty hand of grace that we are not living a different life. Yes, our choices matter; and yes, we need to be obedient. But we must realize that we are not the mightiest player in the game.

Casting comes with the humbling.

For some reason, every time I read this verse, I want to change “casting” to “cast”. I think it may be because we tend to separate these verses from one another. Verse seven is a great coffee cup verse—one we like to cling to. I’m anxious. God cares for me. Problem solved. Its almost as if we’ve changed it into a promise;  let go and let God, and everything will be fine. 

Problem is, that is not exactly what the verse is saying. Verses 6 and 7 are one sentence, and when read in context we see that the main command here is not to simply give our cares to God. We are exhorted to humble ourselves and, as we do, casting our anxieties on Him comes as a by-product. It is all one command—one action. We cannot be humble before God and truly recognize His great might, all the while clinging to our worries.

I wonder how many times I have been caught clinging to the facade that I can control what is bringing me angst while trying to be humble before God at the same time?

Remember one of the virtues that makes me precious in God’s sight? A peaceable spirit; being a woman who is able to be at peace. Kinda like when we fall asleep while reading and awake to find the book we were holding on the floor, resting humbly under God’s mighty hand causes our grip of worry to loosen. And as we see what a haven it is to be in His rest, we will willingly throw our anxieties unto our caring Savior.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather rest in the goodness of His presence than cling to the worries of my days.

 

What did the Lord speak to you in our last passage together? Come and share it in the comments!

Comments

  1. Thank you for this wonderful study of 1 Peter. I have read through it many times, but never in depth like this 6 week study. I’m a week behind, so I won’t finish until next week, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed my time dissecting God’s Word and learning how to truly study the Bible for myself, not just looking at someone’s commentary right away.

    • Thanks for your faithfulness to digging in the Word! I truly want to “work myself out of a job” and hope that you feel a bit more confident to take on another set of passages on your own!

      So glad you joined in, Sonja. I appreciate your kind words!

  2. Beautiful post!  But I tend to disagree a little.  Low self-esteem brings on depression, but humility brings on God closeness.  I think there is a fine line in there somewhere.

    • Thanks, Lisa.

      You are right, it is a fine line. It is hard to communicate something in a short amount of words, but I probably should have clarified a bit what I mean by low-self esteem. I am referring to our spiritual view of ourselves. So, someone may have a healthy self-esteem in the sense that we usually think of it, while having a low esteem of themselves, compared to their view of God.

      I am not the greatest at titling my posts. 🙂 I guess it was a bit misleading.

      Thanks for the clarification!

    • I agree, Lisa.  I have suffered from insecurities and low self-esteem my whole life and I think in many ways they are completely opposing to Biblical humility (since generally insecurities and low self-esteem are very inward/self focused).  I think it’s all in how we define the terms, and what someone may consider low self-esteem, I might not call it that and I think that’s the issue here 🙂

  3. “We cannot be humble before God and truly recognize His great might, all the while clinging to our worries.” Yet another example of where I cannot serve 2 masters. For this recovering “control-freak, perfectionist” I have a long way to go in the area of having a “peaceable spirit”. For as many days as I fail, I go back continually to the life of David and how even despite his many failures, he was still known as a man after God’s own heart. I pray that despite my own many failures I can rest under God’s mighty hand in humility casting my anxieties onto him truly believing that He cares for me.

    Katie, thank you so much for your wisdom, time and devotion to leading us through this study. I’m sad to see it end, but look forward to other opportunities to connect as a community on Allume. I pray you are blessed by the fruit of your obedience in pouring into so many women!

  4. Love this: 

    I have come to fully believe that the most important characteristics
    about me is what I believe about myself and what I believe about God.

    Thanks!

  7. always such wise words from you, Katie. This journey of figuring out who I am , and who I believe God to be, all through His lense of truth has been my real-time journey in recent months. It’s been hard, humbling, sorrowful and yet hopeful at the same time. He is teaching me this right now, and your message is so timely. Thanks for this. XO

  8. “We cannot be humble before God and truly recognize His great might, all the while clinging to our worries.”  Ouch, but so true.  I needed your words today, Katie.

  9. Love this!  I actually just wrote a post last week with a very similar post about how us good girls need God’s grace as much as anyone…and sometimes we’re worse off because we think we don’t need it as much.  Blessings to you!

  10. Hi Katie,
    My crazy summer schedule has me way behind on my blog reading, but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your thoughts on humility. This week I’m trying to write about insecurity and how it might be a blessing-in-disguise, and your post has given me a fresh idea.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Hugs from VA 🙂

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