Ready for action

So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy. (verses 13-15)

Read 1 Peter 1:13-21

It sounds like the military: be ready for action…keep alert…be obedient…do not allow…be holy. This is tough talk. But then, being Christian is tough.

To be like Jesus is to be obedient to God and ready to meet any situation by seeking his will and following his word. To be like Jesus means being alert, because the devil is going to have a go at you and won’t always give you fair warning. To be like Jesus is to be holy, for God began his work of making you holy when you received the Holy Spirit in baptism. The Holy Spirit’s work is to make you holy, that is, someone who is set apart for special service to God.

So, like the man says, let’s be alert and ready for action. With God’s help, be obedient and, most of all, be holy in everything we do.

Lord God, open my ears, my eyes, my mind and my heart to hear, see and understand your call and to obey. Amen

Devotion by Tom Peitsch from “Refreshment for each day” (LCA, Openbook Publishers, 2003)

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