Peter's Pen 1

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."    (1Pe 1:13-16)

I hope to be beginning a series titled “Peter’s pen.”  My intent is to produce a kind of “walking devotional,” drawing from Peter’s pen things that bless me and I hope bless you.  To be honest, I am also doing this because it keeps me focused on Him and off all the hooplala of the election campaigns and cultural conflicts.  I find that I can am too easily distracted and diverted in my thoughts and prayers by things which are interesting and exciting and important – but not the point.

Peter writes:

“preparing your minds for action”

Interestingly, “for action” isn’t in the Greek.  It is implied however by the imperative to “prepare.”

“Prepare” means to “gird up.”  Girding up back them meant that you drew up the bottom of your robe or cloak and tucked it into your belt  so you were ready for – well – action.  We might say today, “roll up your sleeves.”  The very act of girding up implies there will be active work to do.

What we are to “gird up” or “prepare” is our minds.  Mind = the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring. 

It doesn’t look like we’ll be digging ditches or climbing trees. 

It is our faculty of understanding, feeling and desire that is going to get the workout.  Now isn’t that something?

The Puritans taught that the mind (understanding) should inform the affections (feeling and desires).  They also taught that the mind was most secured and well-fed by the Word of God.  They taught that one could never get enough of the Word in one’s mind.  The more Word the more sturdy the wall, the more discerning the understanding and therefore the godlier the feelings and desires.

I can’t help but think of that last Passover, the events in the garden and Peter’s denials.  We tend to look back and see a wonderful fulfillment of God’s promises.  Yet for those present it was, in those moments, a horrible horrible night.  The trauma and terror had to have been beyond what we can conceive.

We’ve all had those times when we stand or sit absolutely gob-smacked by events.  We are more than stunned.  Our minds race and reel.  Our feelings are “all over the place.”  We are beyond confused, beyond understanding.  We are even beyond believing what’s happening.

Ever dreamed you were falling?  For me that seems an appropriate picture.  Sure we wake up but we wake up with a jerk and a sense of terror.  Nothing seems real yet everything seem too real.

Remember, the apostles had their own idea of what was to come.  They were confident and secure as we see in both their singing and sleeping.  “Blind-sided,” is a gross understatement.  Everything changed on that night and everything they hoped for seemed to just disappear.  It had to have been a sense of utter failure even betrayal.  It wasn’t, of course, but try to imagine how they felt in their limited understanding and incorrect expectations.

We however know the whole story.  We can see it clearly.  We know it was part of His plan for redeeming us.  Yet for them, then, it was devastating.

Here may be one of Peter’s reasons for admonishing us to prepare our minds.  We must know the whole truth of God’s Word and plan.  We must understand His way and the world’s way and the conflict between the two. 

I am put in mind of His statement:

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  (Joh 15:19)

Our minds must be girded, prepared to live in and with that truth.  How many times are we blindsided in our relationships and activities in the world?  Why are we shocked and numbed by the criticism, condemnation and persecution we encounter?  Why do we expect the world to play nice with us?

Jesus said:

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Mat 10:16)

We need to wrap our minds around that.  It is His truth and our reality.  I think we need to accept His words and keep them in the forefront of our minds.  We need to appreciate this statement and its warning and fill our minds with the hope of His promises. 

Perhaps I’ve said it too much but my Lord did not die so I could be successful or popular or powerful in the world.  Rather He died to overcome the world for me and to prepare a place for me with Him.  The hope of “heaven here” sadly obscures the real hope we have of “heaven when.”