Do YOU need to fix what you’re worried about?

All of you have problems you are worried about. It could be that diagnosis, or potential sickness; your job, career, finances, future; or your reputation, standing, relationship, or friendships.

The things you’re worrying about are real. And they matter.

In his first letter, Peter has spent 3 chapters telling us that we really will suffer in life, and this really will be unjust.

And anticipating that suffering—being subjected to bad things, or having good things taken from us—is why we worry.

And, like we’ve heard from the apostle John over the last two weeks, the apostle Peter addresses the natural feeling we have when we worry: that the solution lies in us, and we need to grasp control.

He says three things to that natural feeling:

1) You’re not the solution (vv. 5-7)
2) You can’t see the real problem (vv. 8-9)
3) God will strengthen you (vv. 10-11)

1) You’re not the solution

Just look at v. 5:

⁵ Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Why do young people have a specific temptation to pride?
Why do young people need to be told to be humble?

Because young people have lots of energy, lots of gifts, lots of potential, lots of future, and so it always naturally feels like those who are older than them get in the way of that.

When you’re younger, you have more reason to think you can solve problems yourself.

So don’t misunderstand Peter. He’s not saying here: “Listen to elders, because they are wiser.”

He’s not giving you life advice or strategy. Older people are sinners too. Often they are wiser—but sometimes they’re not. Youth can inflate pride. But age can also harden it.

No, he tells younger people to be subject to elders, not as a strategy to maximise human wisdom, but precisely the opposite—For the young to submit to the old is part of God’s order in the world.

Peter says humble yourself within that order, in recognition that we lack wisdom, but God knows all things.

Humility is not a strategy for finding the cleverest human solution. It is the recognition that we are not God.

Just look again at the end of the verse. He doesn’t appeal to strategic decision making, but to the attitude of God:

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.“

But how do you do that? How do you humble yourself? By giving up your attempt to control things: vv. 6-7:

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

You humble yourself by praying. By giving your worries to God, and asking him to fix them.

Not reminding God, as though he doesn’t know they exist. Not cajoling God, as though he needs to be convinced to care. But casting them on him, precisely because he already cares.

Peter says, very simply, whether problems of the body, possessions or reputation: YOU are not the solution.

Your health problem—you can’t control disease.
Your financial and career problem—you’re not in charge.
Your relationships—you can’t control what others think.

We draw the wrong conclusion about control all the time. We see someone whose life seems to work: the career, the house, the health, the confident decisions.

And we think, “They have mastered life.”

But while to a certain degree we reap what we sow, all of that depends on things outside their control: the timing, the help, the body that kept working, the opportunities they did not create, the disasters that did not happen.

We naturally diagnose success as control. God tells us that diagnosis is false.

And you can’t be the solution because:

2) You can’t see the real problem

Please look at vv. 8-9:

⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

There is a war going on that you and I can’t see. And the victory conditions of this war are not: perfect health in a perfect body, perfect career with perfect possessions, or perfect relationships with a perfect reputation.

Satan, your adversary, the devil is indeed attacking these things all the time.

But why? What is his final goal? It is to devour you: which means to devour your faith, your life in Jesus.

Suffering is the devil’s sermon: “God doesn’t care, you need to sort it.”

Faith is trust that God is in control, even though you and I are not. Why would I humble myself before him in prayer, if I’m the one who can fix things myself? Why would I trust him and submit to elders, if I’m the one who needs to handle my worries?

All Christians are afflicted with sufferings, and Peter tells us in v. 9 that all sufferings are of the same kind, they’re shared by all Christians.

Which is true in this sense: The devil always uses suffering to convince you that you’re the one who needs to fix it.

That’s where his name comes from:

Satan—Hebrew for accuser.
Devil—Greek for slanderer.

And Peter has talked about Christians being slandered and accused in the world throughout his letter.

Back in chapter 2, he told us to resist the temptation to justify ourselves.

And now here in chapter 5, he tells us that Satan throws all suffering at you, for this exact same reason: To draw you into self-righteousness.

Remember who you are, the controlling identity Peter said all Christians have back in 2:10:

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We are a people who have received mercy. Not a people who are good or righteous in ourselves.

But when the devil makes you suffer, what goes through your head? I don’t deserve this. I deserve something better. I’m the one who needs to fix this.

That is our real problem: a powerful spiritual being is constantly trying to draw you into self-justified thinking: So, You’re not the solution because You can’t see the real problem

But, hear Peter’s third point: 3) God will strengthen you

Look at v. 10:

¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Why cast your anxieties on God?

Why humble yourself before him, by asking him to solve your problems, rather than trying to take control yourself?

Because he’s the God of all grace: he never gives you as you deserve, he never demands you earn anything from him, he never requires you to justify why you deserve his gifts: he only gives to you freely.

Because he’s called you to his eternal glory in Christ: he has a plan and a purpose, which is only for your good, he will not humiliate you, or turn around and tell you you’re not good enough, he has called you to be honoured purely because of Jesus.

And because he himself will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. Which of course reminds us of God’s promises of eternity where there’ll be no suffering.

But this promise is primarily for now, because “strengthened and established” are things God does to carry you through suffering.

This isn’t a vague emotional encouragement. Peter is echoing what God said to Joshua, 1500 years earlier as he led God’s people into the land of Canaan.

Back in Joshua 1:8-9 he says:

⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night,… ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Be strong and courageous—God will strengthen and establish you. And he does it through his means of grace—his Word.

Whatever problem you’re struggling with today, God will strengthen you

Eventually, God will fix the problem, because he’s called you to his eternal glory:

Not necessarily in your timing, because we all must suffer a little while.

Not necessarily in the way you expect, because God is the one with dominion, and he knows what’s best.

But also not necessarily purely in the next life. He will strengthen you now to endure.

And remember back in chapter 2 verse 12, Peter reminded us of God’s day of visitation: moments, in God’s good timing, when he openly vindicates what his grace has been doing in you while you suffered unjustly.

God operates purely on grace. God has called you to eternal glory.

And so God will strengthen you to endure the devil’s attacks that are designed to stop you from trusting him in prayer.

Do YOU need to fix what you’re worried about?

Well, You’re not the solution.

The world is constantly telling you that you are. That success depends on you, that failure is your fault.

But in reality, while to a limited extent we reap what we sow, the world isn’t consistently fair. You and I are not truly in control.

So humble yourself, and rely on God in prayer. Ask him to deliver you from suffering, bring to him what you’re anxious about.

Because You can’t see the real problem.

Satan is throwing things at you all the time, to devour your faith, to convince you everything hangs on you, to persuade you to trust in yourself to fix it.

But, God will strengthen you. Yes, right now you suffer for a little time. But all grace comes from God. He has called you to eternal honour in Christ. One day your sufferings will end. And before then he’ll strengthen you to endure, and bring about his good purposes through you as you do so.

You don’t need to fix what you’re worried about, Because of who this God is, v. 11:

¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.