Prepare your Minds for Action

This past Ressurection Sunday I preached on 1 Peter 1:3-9 and the importance of keeping our focus on Christ because when we do we can have joy.  But there is a second half to the sermon that comes in verse 13 of the same chapter.

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."  1 Peter 1:13 (NASB)

I want to focus on two parts of this verse.  The second half of the verse is consistent with the whole first part of the chapter - we are to keep our hope fixed on the future grace that will be given to us when Jesus is revealed.  We need to keep reminding ourselves that there is more to life than just the here and now and that we have something better waiting for us! 

This is really hard to do sometimes.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the moment - so enthralled with the present that we do not learn from our past and we cannot in any way look ahead.  In fact, many times, we do not think about the certainty of the future at all.  The future in our culture is always unknowable and uncertain and we as Christians forget that our future is both knowable and certain because of the promises of God. 

I really want to focus in on the first party of this verse.  We are to prepare our minds for action.  In other words, we are to think about what is going to happen ahead of time and prepare ourselves while focusing ourselves on the future that we know is coming.  We do not simply sit back and wait for God to do His work while we do nothing - we must prepare our minds to do the things that God is going to do and then do the things that He has called us to.  Which, if you read ahead a few verses, is to be holy like the One who called us is Holy.  But holiness does not happen by accident.  Obedience does not happen by accident.  Trust does not happen by accident.  We must prepare our minds for these things!  We must prepare.  We must prepare by putting on the armor of God.  We must prepare by forcing ourselves to focus on the things that God calls us to focus on.  We must prepare by getting into the Word of God on a regular basis.  We must prepare through prayer and meditation on the Word of God.  We must prepare.

Do not think for a moment that life just "happens" and we have to roll with whatever life throws at us.  Our life is on a path toward the destination that God has revealed for us and we must prepare ourselves to do that which God has called us to do.  So, if we want to respond rightly to all of the uncertainty in our world, we must prepare ourselves mentally to do so by doing the prep-work!