Hope is a good thing. But for hope to be effective, it needs to be underpinned by a strong faith in someone or something capable of triumphing over the adversity against which we’re hoping for a good outcome.

Think about it. If you’re hoping for something good to come out of your troubles, and yet you don’t have a strong faith in someone or something capable of delivering you from those circumstances … then the only thing you’re going to feel is anxiety.

And that’s only natural, because when the outcome is uncertain and when there’s something important at stake, the uncertainty is going to eat away at you like a cancer.

Writing to some heavily persecuted Christians back in the 1^st Century AD – men, women, and children in fear for their very lives – the Apostle Peter speaks here into exactly that reality:

1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. (ESV)

When the stakes are high, when the outcome is uncertain, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. How exactly do you do that? It’s been said that when you turn your worries into worship, God will turn your battles into blessings.

Which is exactly what God’s saying to us here through Peter: when we humble ourselves, when we bow down and worship God in our troubles … He will exalt us, He will lift us up, just at the right time.

We can cast all our anxieties on Him … because He cares for us.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.