To Encourage You

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.”

I’m thinking this morning about when my granddaughter was planning to be married some years ago.  The anticipation of this event had greatly affected her behavior and actions leading up to her wedding day.  One thing that I couldn’t help noticing was her great joy.  Although she’s typically a very joyful person, I noticed a little extra measure of joy as she looked forward to her wedding day.  Another thing, she had been busy with planning. She and her fiancée had been very busy looking for a place for the wedding and the reception to be held. They’d been planning a trip for their honeymoon. She had been shopping for a dress. She had been busy selecting a bridal party.  And on and on it went.   

In all of this, I can see an analogy to the life of a Christian. In the verse above from 1 Peter, we see the apostle beginning what he is telling us with the word “therefore.”  Anytime we see this word in the Scriptures we should ask ourselves what the “therefore” is there for.  It’s a word that is always looking back.  So, when we look back to the previous verses, we see that Peter has been talking about our salvation. He talks about it in terms such as “a living hope,” “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,” and a “salvation ready to be revealed in that last time.” Another way the Bible refers to salvation is as a great wedding, where the groom (Christ) will be united forever with His bride (the church) (Revelation 19:7-9; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-33).  Believers are to be living in great anticipation of what is called the great marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9).  Revelation 19 tells us that at that supper all will see that the “Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.” 

So, what does this clothing represent? Well, we don’t have to guess what it means, for we are told, “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of  the saints.”  Note that these are not the righteous deeds that are being done DURING THE SUPPER. Rather, they are those deeds that have been done IN ANTICIPATION OF the supper, as the bride, like my granddaughter, had been looking forward with great anticipation to that day.  

And so, looking back to the verse above, we see Peter urging all believers, this bride of Christ, in anticipation of the great hope that awaits us in heaven, to “prepare ourselves for action” right now. We are to be “sober-minded” right now, i.e., we should be living a life that is governed and greatly affected by the great event that awaits us. Much like Jesus, Whose eyes were always on the kingdom while He walked on this earth, and like the saints who have gone on before us, we are admonished in Hebrews 12:1-2 with these words: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  

So, is that how you are living? In thinking more about my granddaughter, although she had been going to work each day and had various other responsibilities to attend to, I can assure you that when she was anticipating her wedding day, there wasn’t a day that went by, and likely not many moments, that her thoughts didn’t go to that day.  In the same way, are YOUR eyes on this coming great day of the coming of the Lord? Do you have the attitude that the apostle Paul said we should have with these words from Colossians 3:1-4: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. SET YOUR MINDS ON THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  

So, if you are a Christian, is that how you’re thinking? Is that your state of mind?  If not, it should be, for to do otherwise would be like a bride giving no thought to her coming wedding day – and that would make no sense at all.