Now that Jesus Christ lives through us, and His life is in us, does that mean all of our earthly issues are His issues, and all concerns of our earthly life are His concerns? And so we can and have to fully trust Him about our happiness and welfare in everything because He’s standing by our side?
1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.”
Peter was writing to believers here, so this is not about our salvation. It’s about what comes after. He was saying the Lord will be involved our life, but there are two things we have to do first. One, we have to humble ourselves and come under His hand. That means we admit we don’t know everything after all, so we’re placing ourselves under his direction. Two, we have to cast our anxieties on Him. That means we take them off our shoulders and place them on His.
We can do these things with confidence because we know He cares us and has our best interests at heart. Paul said that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
In John 15:5 Jesus said if we remain in Him we can bear much fruit, but apart from Him we can do nothing. That means everyone will benefit when we allow the Lord to direct our lives. We will be blessed, the people whose lives we touch will be blessed, and best of all the work of the Kingdom will be advanced.
If we choose to do so, He will let us do things our way. But if we let Him take charge, He’ll work them out His way, making sure they always result in a benefit to us. I have discovered that letting Him be in charge means things always turn out better than if I try to go it alone.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).