Verse of the Day 1/6

Verse of the Day 1/6

1 Peter 1:13-14 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then.  New Living Translation (NLT)

In yesterday's passage David prayed that the Lord keep him from "stupid sins", sins that are avoidable that come from being careless.  In today's passage in 1 Peter ! which deals with being born again to a living hope, the Apostle Peter is talking about what that will mean for us, preparing our minds, getting with God on a regular basis with the same kind of heart that David revealed yesterday.  Peter is another person who can relate to us, he knows what it was like to stumble, he also knew what it was like to get ahead of himself and had to learn to give control over to the Lord.

In all of this, what is necessary is the realization that we need God's grace, and even if we've stumbled He is there for us to pick us up and get us going again.  Philips, Craig and Dean sing:

He'll do whatever, whatever it takes
His grace reaches lower than your worst mistakes
And His love will run farther, than you can run away, my friend
He'll do whatever, whatever it takes, He'll do whatever it takes

Tony Dungy in his devotional for today writes, "We'll make mistakes along the way.  Grace isn't an excuse to give less than our best, but is is reassuring to know that God doesn't pressure us to be perfect.  When we fall, we can get up, dust ourselves off, and keep moving towards the goal.  Whatever our past, God has future plans for us.  And those plans are good."

The passage in first Peter goes on to challenge us to "be Holy", though we will not be perfect, we can be set apart for God and strive, in His grace, to be like the One who has called us.

15 But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct [be set apart from the world by your godly character and moral courage]; Amplified Bible

Blessings,

Mike

1 Peter 1:13-16Amplified Bible (AMP)

13 So prepare your minds for action, be completely sober [in spirit—steadfast, self-disciplined, spiritually and morally alert], fix your hope completely on the grace [of God] that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 [Live] as obedient children [of God]; do not be conformed to the evil desires which governed you in your ignorance [before you knew the requirements and transforming power of the good news regarding salvation]. 15 But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your conduct [be set apart from the world by your godly character and moral courage]; 16 because it is written, "You shall be holy (set apart), for I am holy."

  Mike Follow the verse of the day at mikesvotd.blogspot.com