Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. | 1 Peter 5:6
On Sunday, the Psalmist (Psalm 1) drove a sharp distinction between the way of God and the way of the wicked. The way of the wicked is not as wicked as we may think, it is simply anything that is not the narrow path of God. As Christians, our time should not be spent trying to point out all of the wrong ways; this is an impossible task, like counting the stars. Instead, our energy should be poured into finding the narrow way.
This is where the Psalmist directs us, encouraging us to meditate on and find delight in the way of the Lord. The struggle is that this requires us to not only reject the other offers of fulfillment, but it means we have to reject the entire system. The gospel does not offer us the good news at the end of our human search for power and meaning. The gospel calls us to orient ourselves to God and to trust this change of orientation to bring about the joy and contentment we all desire. In other words, the Bible calls us to move away from ourselves if we are ever going to feel comfortable in our own skin. Self-actualization, then, is movement away from God. In the book, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb, Kyle Strobel and Jamin Goggin address this, saying:
Human flourishing is not about self-actualization, but about discovering our life in Christ. Flourishing entails discovering our insufficiency and coming to rest in the sufficiency of his grace. The flourishing self is the abiding self, not the actualized self.
The way of God is seen most clearly in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is at the cross that we see God incarnate take on a posture of weakness. He allowed Himself to be brutally murdered by people whom He could have overcome. He did this to earn freedom and salvation for His people.
He also did this to show us the power of humility; that weakness is not as weak as we tend to think. Instead, humility is the means to achieving the fullness that we cannot earn or find on our own. Instead of jumping from one path to another, hoping that the next direction is going to provide what the last 10 haven’t, Peter encourages us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. To understand that we will never be sure until we are sure of Him. Finding our place in this world is less about becoming and much more about connecting ourselves to Jesus who has already done the work of redemption.
The big lie is that you are on your own, that you have defend yourself and fight for power and control; this is the counsel of the wicked. The true way to fulfillment in this life is to submit yourself to the king. To live out His way, to live for His glory, and to find your joy in what He has done. What seems like weakness to us is actually the pathway to exaltation. Submitting ourselves to a Father in heaven makes us heirs of His glory. The good news of the gospel is not that Jesus will give us what we seek, it is that He is keeping us for what we need. We must trust Him in this. We must humble ourselves so that he can exalt us.