Good morning! The casting comes from the humbling. In the verse preceding this one, Peter writes, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). This is all one sentence. You cannot understand 5:7 without 5:6.

 And, if you want to walk it back a little further, Peter reminds his younger listeners that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (5:5). The clothing of humility paves the way for us to cast our cares on Him, for if we walk in our pride, do we not risk trying to handle all of our issues ourselves from our own shallow wells?

Humble yourselves! Surrender! Submit! Without this, we cannot cast our cares and anxieties upon Him! If we think we have it all together, then those cares and anxieties will stay along for the ride.

What is God doing to humble you and bring you to the feet of His dear Son? Whatever it is, lean into it! You’ll be glad you did!

Good morning! As Christians, we have been saved by the gift of grace through faith. Yes, even our faith is a gift. In Romans, Paul reminded us that no one is righteous and that no one seeks after God (cf. Romans 3:9-12). By God’s grace, we are saved by the faith He grants us.

Julia Johnston wrote this hymn in 1910 that, thankfully, is preserved in many of our hymnals. This last stanza reflects Ephesians 2:8:

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
All who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive? 

Will you?

Good morning! To “believe” means to commit, trust and treasure. This word is the same as the root word that we translate “faith.” From Christ we receive our nourishment (eating and drinking) but also an ability to nourish others.

In the Scriptures, water serves as a picture representing the Holy Spirit, as it does here (see John 7:39). When Jesus ascended to the Father (Acts 1:9-11), the promised Spirit would come to indwell all believers–essentially Christ would live in them, fulfilling the prophesy of Him being “Immanuel … God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Christ changes our lives, our treasures–He changes everything. As soon as He rescues us and changes those treasures, the Spirit seals of our hearts immediately at salvation. What a treasure when Christ changes our treasures where we no longer trust in other things that can’t follow through in what they promise. Christ can… and Christ will!

Where is your treasure?

Advent reminds us of His coming and prepares us for our going.

I pray you all had a blessed Thanksgiving. We now enter into another season in the calendar. The next holiday we celebrate en force is Christmas–a mere 27 days away. As such, today marks the beginning of a liturgical holy season known as Advent. Taken from a Latin word, it means awaiting, anticipation. This serves as a time where we calm our hearts and ready ourselves for the coming Christ-king.

Sadly, whenever I mentioned during the year on the 25 of each month, most respond with groaning. Groaning! Why? Rather than anticipate the celebration of God becoming flesh to rescue us from our sin and brokenness, we groan because of all that happens over the Christmas holidays: Christmas shopping, party preparation, school plays, church musicals, cooking, cleaning, and on and on. Rather than the beauty of resting in anticipation, we are bombarded with the racket of overscheduling ourselves. Thus, the Christmas season comes and goes with little reflection.

[Listen to the rest.]

For more information about our ministry, go to http://www.arbc.net.

‘Songs of Hope: A TGC Advent Concert’ is a concert of Christ-centered songs, spoken word poetry, and Scripture to offer hope in a difficult year. (Released in 2020.) This served as such a blessing last year. May this be helpful to you.

Good morning. Thankfulness marks the Christian life—not simply for the things in the hear and now and not simply for material things.  James tells us that “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17).  Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “What do you have that you did not receive?  If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1 Corinthians 4:7)?   So what we find ourselves thankful for has a whom behind it.  God gave us all we have.       Even with this, some fail to recognize this.  Thankful hearts that should mark a Christian can become entitled hearts: “Well, God, I know you gave me this—but that’s your job!”  We can become bitter hearts:  “Well, God, I know you gave me this—but I really wanted that.” We can become proud in heart like Nebuchadnezzar, who, when looking over his kingdom from his montrous  We can become proud in heart like Nebuchadnezzar, who when looking over his kingdom from his monstrous palace in Babylon, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).  Immediately, to show who truly ruled over all men, God immediately took away Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom until He gave glory to the Most High. 

Give credit where credit is due–every good and perfect is from above. All good things come from God–most notably His Son, Jesus Christ. Will you receive this good gift?