1Peter ends with an APPEAL to believers that are older and those that are much younger!1 Peter5:1-3,”To the elders among you,I appeal to you....Be shepherds of God’s flock...serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES to the flock.” And 1Peter5:5 calls the younger believers to humbly receive the EXAMPLES of how to live/think/respond/plan as life-lessons to be weaved into their lives. Then Peter calls both, the younger and the older to HUMILITY “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.”( 1Peter5:6-7). When Peter says “that HE may lift you up”, he is in essence calling us all to a life that sees all worldly success; praise; comfort; accolades, as nothing compared to a life lived honoring The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ...all else is shifting sand (Matthew7:24-29,”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”). Then Peter tells us the importance of guarding these things (older->seek to be shepherds of the flock as Jesus models through scripture “because as God wants you to be..not greedy...but eager to serve...being examples to the flock”: younger->submissive to those who are older),Peter calls us to rightly protect these ways of thinking/living/responding in our life when 1Peter5:8-9 says “Be self controlled & alert.Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.Resist him,standing firm in the faith,because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same sufferings.” Our attitudes of pride,arrogance,self-serving,ego,greed,& having a worldly perspective on life instead of an ETERNAL perspective...,are all severe detriments to how God desires to bless the “olders” & the “youngers”! These attitudes will make us “olders” either back away from the mantel of being shepherds as we get older,or if we do take up this mantel we will likely lead/mentor/shepherd in the ways of worldly successes and worldly perspectives instead of Godly successes and Eternal Perspectives! This leads to the “youngers” having a paradigm of living/thinking/responding/planning that is also worldly & temporal, which tends to shape minds/hearts/lives that become far less than the “humility towards one another” that God calls us to. These attitudes also may be the cause for the “olders” having more concern for their free time being spent on themselves, & a lack of TRUE&RIGHT responsiveness to the spiritual/eternal needs of the “youngers”. And then the “youngers” become as selfish/self-serving/greedy & arrogant as the “olders” in their lives. This is NOT the way God’s Heart desires for us to be instrumental is each other’s lives! HE desires for the call HE places on the “olders” to make them humbly dependent on God’s Word & HIS Spirit for personal guidance as they step into the life purposes God calls them to as shepherds and trusted Eternal Perspective Mentors to the “youngers”. If this happens as God instructs in HIS Word, then there is an increased potential for more and more “youngers” to see the humble submission of “olders” to The Lordship of Jesus Christ, & just maybe a few more “youngers” doing the same as they become more trusting in the humble/selfless examples of “olders” sincerely seeking to follow & serve Christ with their mind/heart/life. This is one of the major ways God intends for our lives to further The Gospel of Christ. And our not sincerely taking these mantels up in our lives is likely why in the United States of America we are not experiencing a TRUE revival of true & sincere followers of Christ that take HIS Word as HIS Word! For if we “olders” truly&sincerely took HIS Word as HIS Word our lives would become the “willing shepherds” that “God wants us to be”....and as in the Church in the book of Acts, we might just see communities and even nations positively impacted by The Gospel of Christ...the same things that happened in the first New Testament Church described in Acts. Dear Jesus, forgive me for not being aware of the ways You desire for my life to be an example of the kind of shepherd YOU so desire me to have the joy of being... I pray for Your HELP in changing me from the inside out...to be a Sincere & True seeker&follower of Your’s so I may become the example YOU want me to be.