Verse of the Day 8/15

 

Verse of the Day 8/15

 

1 Peter 1:13 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.  English Standard Version (ESV)  

 

If you  have a "big day" ahead, perhaps with meetings at work,  or  church,  a day of vacation with the family or countless other things most of us "prepare our minds" for the day.  It may be planning phone calls, stops to make or activities that you would like to do, but I would hope that you seldom wake up  in the morning and just "wing it".

 

For the Christian that should involve time spent  with God, our Creator and Sustainer, in His Word and in prayer and prayerfully considering what He may have for you for the  day.   We may face unknowns, but we can "set our hope fully on the grace", God's enabling power to accomplish what needs to be done.

 

Pastor James MacDonald writes, "The energy to live the Christian life is found in one place—in our focused, conscious choice to put our hope in Jesus. Hope is the confident expectation that something better is coming tomorrow."

 

I often post the passage for the day from The Message (below).  It is a paraphrase and I don't use it as much for teaching as for giving perhaps a different perspective, but one that does line up with the passage. 

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As we "sober mindedly" (ESV) approach the day, I like how Eugene Peterson paraphrased verse 13, "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing."

 

Let's not just "wing it", doing what we feel like doing at the moment, but put our minds in gear by God's grace for His purposes.  The day will go better if we do.

 

 

Blessings,

 

Mike

 

1 Peter 1:13-21The Message (MSG)

A Future in God

^13-16 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

¹⁷ You call out to God for help and he helps—he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living.

^18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

 

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