Grumpy

"5 And you who are younger must follow your leaders. But all of you, leaders and followers alike, are to be down to earth with each other, for God has had it with the proud, But takes delight in just plain people.6 So be content with who you are, and don't put on airs. God's strong hand is on you; He'll promote you at the right time.  7 Live carefree before God; He is most careful with you."

1 Peter 5:5-7 (The Message) 

I like how The Message translates these verses.  Look at the end of verse seven, "He is most careful with you."  Isn't that wonderful?  

But, let's not take verse seven out of context, let's look at this whole passage.  Some people are wonderful at giving their burdens to God, and then they do nothing else themselves.  They think they are spiritual--I have another word, lazy.  Look at verses five and six.  Earlier Peter had talked about submitting to government officials, now he is talking about all believers submitting to God, and to each other--we have to do our part, and trust God to do the rest.  

"God will promote you at the right time."  God never exalts or promotes anyone until they are ready for it, and only He knows when that is.  The cross before the crown so to speak.  Meaning that sometimes we have to go through some yuk.  

But once we submit to God (first) and then others--we can take hold of the wonderful peace found in verse seven.  We need that inner peace to deal with life.  

I couldn't find my peace today, in fact, it seems to have been missing all week.  I've been stressed.  I had a co-worker ask me today if I was grumpy.  (I don't know why but when people ask me that, I get grumpier)  It's a good thing she already knows the love of Christ, because she was not about to see it exemplified in me.  Yes I was grumpy, and it wasn't her fault...but she was there, and she just asked me if I was grumpy!  So, I did what any godly woman would do, I answered in a very harsh tone, NO! About 30 seconds later, I received a text message from my husband telling me how proud he was to be married to a godly woman.....busted.  Instant conviction.  There was nothing godly about my attitude.  I didn't have that inner peace, why?........

I had not submitted to God. I didn't like others enough to care about what they wanted...and it showed.  In my witness, in my emotions, in my face.  

You see verse seven suggests that we live carefree by giving God ALL of our burdens.  Not just the one's that we are ok with Him seeing.  But all the yuk that we're going through.  Every annoying person in our life, every bill we can't pay, every unknown test result, every pain, every worry...past, present, and future.  

I'm not saying life can be perfect, not here, not in this sinful world.  But, we can most certainly make it more bearable if we will just allow God to work.  

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Romans 12:2 (The Message)