How to live for Jesus today …

Living life as a child of God in a wild and woolly world like ours can be, to say the least, challenging.

But live as God’s children we must!

“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. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy,'” 1 Peter 1:14-16.

How, in the wicked 21st century, do we live holy lives as obedient children of God? The Apostle Peter, who gave us such a command, also gave us insight into how to achieve this in the verse just prior to his exhortation. I love, love, love this verse for the great wisdom and guidance it provides us, it is deeply spiritually profound!

“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.” – 1 Peter 1:13.

To live as God’s obedient, holy children in this world right now, Peter tells us three things:

1. Prepare our minds for action.
We live in an age and culture that worships entertainment and comfort. To be entertained is more about dulling our minds with Netflix marathons, hours of computer games, or anything that relieves us from serious, sober thought. We want to laugh and be merry … only.

That’s not how to live as obedient, holy children of God.

I’m not saying laughing, enjoyments, entertainment, or or “just chillin'” are wrong or bad. But it is when we seek that first for our lives. Peter’s exhortation is to live very differently!

The King James Version of this text renders this verse like this: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind …” The idea of girding up the “loins of your mind” bring an image of a person wearing flowing garments, a style that would get in the way when going into battle (in this case, spiritual battle) or in many kinds of work. So people would take the extra cloth of those flowing garments and tuck them in their belts so they wouldn’t get in the way or cause them to trip. By doing this, they were “prepared for action.” This image was often applied to runners or other athletes, who would gird up any extra cloth so that it would not hinder them in running a race or competing.

That’s the idea Peter means regarding what we need to do with our minds – we must prepare our minds for action by clearing out or securing away all the things that can slow us down, get in our way, or trip us up from living for Jesus each day and keeping our focus on kingdom living: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” Matthew 6:33.

We must prepare our minds so that we can run the specific race of life that God has laid out for each one of us: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith …” Hebrews 12:1-2a.

2. Exercise self-control.
It is impossible to live in obedience to God or to live a holy life without exercising self-control.

Let’s step back for a moment and acknowledge it is impossible to live a holy life without God Himself transforming us from the inside out. No problem, because that’s exactly what He wants to accomplish in every one of our lives! God transforms us, and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit living in us to be able to overcome sin on a daily basis.

BUT …

,,, but God doesn’t live our lives for us, nor does He think for us. He created us with wonderful minds to think with and make decisions with, and we have to use those minds each day to choose to live as a disciple of Jesus, doing all things for the glory of God, as His obedient, holy children. To remain both obedient and holy requires we exercise self-control in our thinking, with our emotions, and certainly in the choices of our behavior. That’s okay, because God has empowered us to be able to exercise self-control!

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline,” 2 Timothy 1:7.

To help us better understand why the Apostle Peter thought self-control was so essential to obedient, holy living, I’ll share here for a second time a story told by Christian Cheong:

In the book, The Three Edwards, Thomas Costain described the life of Raynald III, a 14th century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.”

After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room.

This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter.

When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.” Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year … a prisoner of his own appetite.

We must daily exercise self-control over our “appetites” so that we stay on the holy way Jesus leads us on.

3. Put and keep all your hope in Jesus.
If you think you can live this life well without Jesus, you’ll soon find yourself miserable. And many people have given in to thinking that real life is just that — miserable! One new example of such negative mindsets is reflected in a report from CBS channel 3 TV in Phoenix, AZ. …

You’ve probably heard the expression “misery loves company.” And if that holds true, a new dating app should be very successful!

The app “Date Miserable People” … [is] the brainchild of Shaun Price. He says he created the site so people could engage in online dating while keeping it real and honest without feeling intimidated.

“D.M.P is an online platform that allows people to engage in online dating honestly and within the realities of their daily lives,” Price said. “The majority of the sites, everybody’s perfect. Everybody’s got a beautiful picture, everybody loves to travel, everybody loves to hang out with their friends, but that’s not really who they are.”

Many believe that keeping it real means keeping it miserable, as though one can’t be honest about the struggles in their life without also being disconsolate. But isn’t that the difference faith is supposed to make? Because of Jesus, Christians can keep it real without keeping it miserable. We can face the moment in the light of eternity.

Putting all of our hope for this life and eternal in Jesus Christ changes and enables us to live whole, fulfilling, joyful lives! We cannot be obedient, holy, or run the race without hindrance without Jesus. It is Jesus who has saved us, it is Jesus who sustains us through each and every day He gives us to live, and it is Jesus who will return one day for us. Regardless of getting our minds set right, and fervently exercising self-control through the power of the Holy Spirit, who we are as God’s children all rides on our hope in Jesus. But reminding yourself every day that Jesus has saved us, and is able to keep us, and will return for us, gives us peace and confidence to accomplish just what Peter said we must do …

“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. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy,” 1 Peter 1:14-15.

Have you prepared your mind for action?

Do you exercise your God-given capacity for self control each day?

Have you placed all your hope in Jesus?

Scotty