March 16, 2023

1 Peter 5:1-7 (HCSB)
1 Therefore, as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of the Messiah, and also a participant in the glory about to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you: 2 shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God's [will]; not for the money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.            5 Likewise, you younger men, be subject to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time,    7 casting all your care upon Him, because He cares about you.

Rachel Raley
It takes humility to submit. As humans, we can be guilty of only wanting to submit to others when we agree with them, but that’s not submission. Things that are out of our control scare us, and that’s exactly what we are admitting when we submit: “I am not in control”. When we struggle with submission to other humans with rightful authority we ultimately struggle to submit to God.  Our life should speak, "I will submit to rightful authority unless it's causing me to sin". When we submit to God and His will we may not get our prayers answered the way we thought, but we can be assured that He will carry our burdens when we approach Him with a spirit of trust and a heart of humility. God cares for us so much, that we should share the great burdens of our life with Him as well as the ones that seem insignificant.