Loose Ends


"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 Peter 1:13


So, for the first time in 8 years I am not doing a read through the Bible program. I felt like the Lord was telling me to slow down and dig deep into a book of the Bible instead of all 66. Actually, Lord willing, I'll get through 12 books this year (using a study guide for each book). I started with 1 Peter and I am already amazed at how I can read the same chapters over and over and they come alive each and every time! I guess I shouldn't be amazed...God did say that His Word is "living and active", didn't He?!:)

I love 1 Peter 1:13. It really made me think! I know just how important my mind is...I know how quickly my thoughts can lead the rest of me astray when I don't take them captive and renew them with the Word of God. But I was intrigued by what Peter meant when he said to "prepare your mind for action". The footnotes in my MacArthur Study Bible were so helpful:

"Some translations render this, "Gird up the loins of your mind" - the ancient practice of gathering up one's robes when needing to move in a hurry; here, it is metaphorically applied to one's thought process. The meaning is to pull in all the loose ends of one's thinking, by rejecting the hindrances of the world and focusing on the future grace of God (cf. Eph. 6:14; Col. 3:2).

It was a great word picture for me. I know that God is sovereign. I know that He rules and reigns over ever detail of my day. I know that He will accomplish all the He purposes to do...for my good and His glory. I know that He uses pain to sanctify me. He is awesome. Yet, I often have "loose ends" dangling about me. Loose ends of fear, worry, doubt, complaint, questioning...When will Bryan get another job? How long will it take? What if it takes a long time? I'm sick of packing boxes! Why is this part of Your plan for us God? This doesn't seem fair.

And I trip over those loose ends and the only action I am good for is rolling around on the floor!:) What do I do with all those "loose ends"? I grab them all together and cut them off with the scissors of "hope". God says to "set (my) hope fully on the grace that will be brought to (me) at the revelation of Jesus Christ". And with those loose ends gone, I am able to properly prepare my mind for action...for the battles that rage each and every day...for walking in sweet, beautiful hope! And if, for even one minute, I stop thinking sober-minded and start thinking that my "loose ends" are too "important" to cut off, I have only to read Romans 5:1-5 and I can't help but "throw aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles"(Heb. 12:1)...those loose ends...and run the race marked out for me...in hope, in joy,and in love with Jesus!

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."


(and, if you just found yourself starting to sing those verses as you read them, it might be because you listen to "Seeds Family Worship"...these verses are on their latest album :))

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