Continuing on with this theme of our thought life… in studying I Peter this morning I came across this wonderful verse:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be sober minded; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (I Peter 1:13)

Therefore — because of the glorious riches of the inheritance mercifully given to all who have believed the gospel (as just described in the first verses of I Peter) we should have this response:

prepare your minds for action — the original expression is: “gird up the loins of your mind”. What great imagery! Peter is giving us a mental picture of a man gathering or “girding” up his long, loose garments so that he is ready to run, work, or battle whatever is ahead of him.

But he is specifically talking about the mind here. The encouragement is: “gird up” all those thoughts that bog you down, trip you up, distract you, or could get entangled on the stumbling blocks, weeds, and thorns of the world. Do not be lulled to sleep in green pastures or hopelessly passive in hard valleys. Wherever you are, you are to be girding up your thought life. We are in a spiritual battle and we have to be ruthless in protecting our mind and staying focused on Christ Jesus & the hope set before us and in us.

Peter goes on to even give us great insight into how to do this:

…be sober minded and set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed

Be sober-minded. Clear of thought. Self-controlled. Disciplined in mind so that you will not become drunk by the thought patterns of the world. We are to be ruthless to remain in Christ (John 15) and set our hope fully on eternity.

Although life on earth will be full to the brim of earthly decisions to be made, earthly work to be done, and earthly things to steward… our minds can remain on Christ and the eternal perspective even as our hands and feet give Him glory in our earthly working.

So the next time the Holy Spirit convicts you that you’ve been lulled to be lazy and your thoughts are only on earthly pleasures…or your mind has become all entangled with the thorns of this world… or you’re constantly tripping over negative, self-focused, fearful thoughts….. gird up! Gather up all those thoughts, give them to Jesus, and get back in the battle. Discipline your thought life and set your hope fully on Christ & His faithfulness & promises. Rise above worldly ways, lift those eyes to heaven, and keep them on the prize.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  Hebrews 12:1-2a