humility

True Humility: Casting Your Cares as an Act of Trust

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I love it when the Word of God catches me off guard, when a single word or phrase causes me to stop and ask, “Wait… What?”

Walk with me through 1 Peter 5:6-7 in the NET, which is the translation I’m reading from today.

And God will exalt you in due time

We see this promise and others like it many times in the Word. Psalm 91 offers another great reminder in verse 15 where God says, “I will rescue them and bring them honor.” We are grateful to know that we will see this happen in due time, but when is our due time? Well, the sentence isn’t finished yet. As is common with God’s promises, there are conditions. In this case…

if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand

Ah. There it is. That little word, “if,” followed by that big phrase, “humble yourselves.” Seriously, we humans have a hard time with humility, which isn’t surprising when you consider that the devil’s sin is pride. If he fell for it, so can we. And we do. I mean, have you ever caught yourself being proud of how humble you were and then abruptly realized, “Um… Well… Maybe I still have some work to do here”? I have. It’s been a while, but I have. 

To continue…

So far so good, right? It’s not news that God demands humility. If I were to start tossing out passages that address this specific issue you’d stop reading before I was done; there are that many. It was the next word that really caught my attention this time, the word that had me reading what follows very carefully. The word is “by.”

by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Yes, here we are at a verse fragment we’ve all heard repeatedly. “Listen, dear Christian, cast all your cares on him because he cares for you!”

But are we really paying attention to what Peter is saying here, or are we repeating a cliche that has become too familiar to affect us anymore? This verse isn’t merely about us turning all our cares over to God, which sounds easy when we all know it’s usually not. No, this is about much more.

Read 1 Peter 5:6-7 again, slowly.

And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.

We humble ourselves BY giving God all our cares, everything that has us concerned, tied up in knots, or scared half out of our minds. This isn’t merely a pleasant-sounding platitude: It’s a command, and if we want what Peter mentions at the beginning of verse 6 we’d best be on the mark by the end of verse 7.

We must humble ourselves under God’s hand. How do we do it? By giving all our cares over to Him and trusting Him to deal with them. This trust both requires humility and inspires humility. If we insist on hanging onto our cares, not surrendering them to Him, we deny His divinity, His omnipotence, and we demonstrate that we imagine we are more able to handle the things that matter to us than He is.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve been around here long at all you know I fight this battle myself. Sometimes I hand my concerns over to Him only to look down and find I’ve somehow drawn them back into my own hands without even realizing it. The key is that I humble myself all over again and throw them back to Him. Yes, I mean throw. That is what “casting” is. It’s sending something away from you with force. It’s crying out, “God, I really don’t want this even if it looks like I do. Please take it back again! I do trust you!” as I chuck it at him and put my figurative hands behind my back.

True trust requires humility, and we prove that we have humbled ourselves (He doesn’t do it for us.) when we entrust all our cares to Him and leave them there. And, when we cast all our cares on Him, we are inevitably humbled by His loving response and faithfulness. It’s a beautiful cycle.

It’s so beautiful that it’s hardly necessary to go back to the first part of verse 6, but of course we will.

And God will exalt you in due time…

Your due time is coming my brother, my sister. I don’t know how or when, but if you do as Peter says you can know God will respond. Just do it. Humble yourself under His hand by trusting Him to handle everything you care about, and your due time will eventually come.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Am I Enough?

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Have you ever been held back by self-doubt, procrastinated starting something because you weren’t sure you could accomplish what you envisioned…or even what you know for a fact God told you to do?

I have. In fact, I have this very week. God gave me an assignment while in prayer and my immediate reaction was, “But can I? Am I good enough? Who am I to think people should listen to me, to what I have to say?”

I’ve heard many times some version of “God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called,” and I know for a fact that it’s true. But still, I have my moments of feeling inadequate and if I don’t respond to those moments correctly they can lead to unproductive seasons.

That very thing happened with Experiencing the Bible. God told me to write it, and I began it, but more than once I stopped working on it because I felt so unqualified. It should have been available a long time ago, but I only actually published it in June of 2022 because I gave in to self-doubt so many times.

I’m currently working on a new book, a devotional. I also plan to start a newsletter in which, among other things, I’ll share some of the devotions that will be published when I finish the book. Yes, I have some definite pieces in mind to write, and I actually do quite a bit of writing in my head anyway, but l’m way behind schedule in part because I sometimes don’t feel like I’m enough.

I’ve learned that the mastery of self-doubt is the key to success.

Will Smith

Will Smith is right about mastering self-doubt. The fact is, most people do fight feelings of inadequacy, occasionally need a boost of self-confidence. Those who succeed are the ones who learn to master it, to lean on what God has to say about them rather than what the people around them say or even what they believe about themselves.

We were all sinners until Christ saved us. He didn’t care.
We are all inadequate when God calls us. He doesn’t care.

We may not realize it, but there’s no way we start out ready to accomplish all He has planned for us, because His plans will always be bigger than what we can do on our own. This is why He repeatedly offers assurance in His Word. One of my favorite verses on this topic, which I stand on all the time, is In 2 Corinthians.

And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8 NET

So here’s the answer to the question, “Am I enough?”

Maybe not right now, but if God has told you to do it he will also make you able to walk through it. He will provide everything you need to become enough. Today, when He hands you the assignment or gives you the dream, choose to start where you are and begin moving forward. He’ll make you able. In fact, since He is both Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, as far and He’s concerned, you already are enough!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Serve

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Photo excerpt from Inspire Bible, NLT, Tyndall House Publishers, Inc.

In John 13:3-7, we learn something vitally important. Verses 3 through 5 tell us, “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.”

I think about this scene and wonder what went through the disciples’ minds as Jesus rose from the table.

“What is He doing? Is He going somewhere?”

Then He took off His robe, which had to really make them wonder. And when He poured water into the basin? Had they figured it out at that point? Maybe?

If so, I’ll bet they were shooting truly startled glances at each other, trying to decide who would speak first. Their Rabbi, this man they had followed, who had led them and taught them, loved them and corrected them, was behaving like a common household servant.

By this time, they surely knew He did nothing without purpose. But what was His purpose? They had to wonder.

“You don’t understand now what I am doing,” Jesus told Peter, “but someday you will.”

The reason for what Jesus was doing – serving – is rooted in verse 3: “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.” Jesus knew exactly who and what He was. He had absolutely nothing to prove to anyone, no doubts about Himself.

This passage has been used often to remind us that as Christians we are here to serve, and that is the clear message here (v. 12-17). But there is, perhaps, a less clear message waiting for us as well. It is the man who does have something to prove that refuses to serve, but demands service. It is the unsure man who requires that a pedestal be planted firmly under his feet.

Jesus could serve readily as He did because He was confident in Who He was. This is key. As Christians, we need to pursue a genuine understanding of who we are in Christ Jesus. Once we grasp the fullness of this revelation, it will be nothing for us to kneel and wash another’s feet. Service will have become part of who we are.

I have seen this over and over in those with whom I serve. My pastor, who is also my boss and a tremendous man of God, reminds the staff often that to follow Christ is to serve, and we should check our hearts if we ever forget this fact.

But what about those that some would call Christian celebrities? Yes, if they truly follow Jesus, they serve. You may not see or recognize their service for what it is, but I assure you it’s true; if they wholeheartedly follow Jesus, they serve.

John Ramirez is one excellent example of this. He comes to our church every year, and draws large crowds when he does. The last time he came, he showed up at the church early on Sunday morning – just walked in the front door like anyone else. Some of us were setting things up for service and he joined right in, picking up the end of a table to move it into place. When urged to stand aside and let others handle it, he reminded us that we’re all servants, him included, and assured us that he wanted to serve.

That’s what I’m talking about. He knows who he is in Christ Jesus! Yes, he is John Ramirez, someone we look forward to being with every year, but first and foremost he is a follower of his Lord, Jesus Christ, and that is what really matters.

Child of God, remember who you are, whose you are. Yes, as a son or daughter of the Most High, you are indeed a very important person. You have absolutely nothing to prove to man, because you have already been approved by the One who really matters. So set aside all pride and need for validation. Be confident in who you are and follow the example Jesus set for us: Serve.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C