Have you ever thought about the one word question, WHY? Everyone has asked this question at one time or another. Why am I so fat? Why did I do that? Why can’t I be more like him or her? Why can’t I fly? Why can’t I go home from school? Why can’t I sleep more? Then this next question seems to have the same response when I ask it. Why did it HAPPEN TO ME?
  
In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter is speaking to the elders, then he turns his attention to the young people. Submit yourself to your elders; these are your Teachers, Parents, Pastors and Student Pastors. He then says, “Be submissive to one another,” which means we should listen to one another and love one another at all times. Then he says, “Be clothed with humility.” My question to all of these statements is WHY? Peter continues in verse 5 to say that “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Verse 6 becomes a part of one of our dreaded “Why” questions. We ask, “Why not now? Why do I have to wait?”

Timing is everything. Peter says that the Lord will exalt you in due time, cast your cares on Him.  You are in a time of preparation, slow down and receive. In Verse 8 he says to be sober, which means to have self-control, also be vigilant, which means to be watchful of your surroundings. Peter is explaining this to us in order to bring us to the most important part of this scripture in verse 8.  It says, “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” So we know we have an adversary, an arch enemy, then WHY have we not asked the question on how to defend ourselves against him? Or WHY have we not taken the proper precautions to defend ourselves from our adversary?
  
The Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God. This is armor of protection. I was thinking the other day, if you lived in Afghanistan or Iraq, you might have to walk around town with a bullet proof vest on in order to survive from getting shot by the enemy and possibly dying. Then WHY would we not put on the full armor of God every day before we leave the house, knowing that there is an enemy waiting outside to destroy us?
  
Verse 9 says, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith.” Yeah, I have done that, but it is so hard. You don’t understand what I have been going through. WHY ME? I want you to really get this when I say this statement, you are not alone. Jesus went though everything that you are going through or that you will go through, not to mention that the people you are closest with are going though the exact same difficulties. The problem is we are all too scared to speak up. The rest of verse 9 tells us that our brothers are going though this also.
  
But verses 10 through 11 speaks of the grace and eternal glory that Christ Jesus has for you. Verse 11 says, “After you have suffered a while,” this means that we are going to go through some tough times in life, but if we resist the devil and submit to God, He will “Perfect us, establish us, strengthen us, and settle us.”  So next time you catch yourself going through some tough times in life, instead of saying, “WHY ME?” how about changing your mind set and vocabulary to, “Perfect what you need to do in ME. Establish ME. Strengthen ME in all my week areas. Settle ME into the man or women of God You want me to be.”