April 27

‘Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.’ 1 Peter 5:6-7

Have you ever played the game ‘Jenga’ before? It is a strategy game where players take it in turn to remove one wooden block at a time, the winner being the one who doesn’t make the structure fall. It is fun especially when played with good friends. Sometimes what seems like the most robust looking structure is easily floored by the removal of the wrong piece.

Has your life ever felt like that, the one holding piece pulled out being the final straw that breaks the proverbial camels back? Well we don’t have to face our problems alone. Verse 7 of our key text is the one that is preached, written, spoken about the most. There is the visual metaphor of ‘casting all your care’, not carefully in an orderly manner placing them, but casting, throwing even discarding your issues, problems, burdens on Jesus because guess what? He can handle them.

But this promise IS conditional, which is where we sometimes fall down. We need to first realise that we cannot handle our problems on our own ‘therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God’. Could pride be the stumbling block in our healing?

If you need the help of a mighty, strong, willing and powerful Saviour, just ask him and in due time ’He may exalt you.’