I’m in God’s Hands – February 7, 2024

Read: 1 Peter 5:6-11

Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6

I’m in God’s Hands

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Take a moment and look at your hands. You can tell a lot about someone just by looking at their hands. Are they rough from work or sports? Is there a Band-Aid on a finger? Do your hands look small when held up next to an adult?

The Bible pictures God as having hands. It describes what his hands are like and what his hands do. What do his hands look like? They kind of look like the hands of a parent who tosses a ball a little higher to train a child to catch better. They are the hands that show a child how to share a toy with someone else or hold back a child from stepping off a curb onto a busy street. They are hands that cook your food and tuck you in to bed. They are hands that are there through the tears and the temper tantrums. Even when it hurts, the hands of parents know what is best for the good of the child.

God’s hands carefully formed you before you were even born. Every day ever since, his hands provide for all of your needs in life. Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross to pay for everything wrong in you—whether you thought it, did it, or said it. Jesus even prayed, “Into your hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit.”

So what does God want us to do with our hands? Just this: “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand.” To humble yourself means to simply place yourself into God’s caring hands because he knows what is best for you. Fold your hands and pray to him in good times or bad times. When something happens that makes you wrinkle up your forehead with worry lines, “Cast all your anxiety on him.” Like a hand holding a ball, throw what troubles you in the direction of God. He’ll catch it and work it out because he cares so much for you.

You can tell a lot about someone by looking at their hands. How cool to know we are safe in God’s hands! Ask God to give you humble hands. Thank God for his mighty hands!

Closing Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I place into your hands all the things that worry me. I humbly ask that you work them out for me, and I know you will, because you care for me so much! Amen.

The questions below are to help families discuss this devotion. The questions are divided by age group as suggestions, but anyone could reflect on any of the questions as they desire.

Questions for Younger Children

• Who has the biggest hands in your family? Is there someone in your life who always makes you feel safe? Why?
• In today’s devotion, whose hands are the best ones to handle our problems?

Questions for Elementary Age Children

• 1 Peter 5:7 says “(Jesus) cares for you.” Name some ways Jesus shows us he cares.
• Identify two practical ways we as a family can regularly give our worries to Jesus.

Questions for Middle School and Above

• Why is it so easy for us to hold onto our worries and not give them to Jesus?
• In what ways could we as your parent(s) better learn your worries and help you bring them to Jesus?