Think About It

Back when I attended PBU, some friends and I started a Bible study on 1 Peter. It turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of the semester. During my first floor meeting at Moody, my RA told us she was going to start a Bible study on..you guessed it, 1 Peter. I literally laughed out loud during her explanation, and realized later that no one else thought it was funny, nor realized why I thought it was funny.  I think I gave off a wacky first impression…

Needless to say, this Bible study has been just as much of a blessing as the first. It has allowed me to get to know the girls on my floor in a deeper way..they’re wonderful.

During both studies, 1 Peter 1:13 has stuck out to me like a sore thumb..in a good way. It says “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.” Do you think we understand the depth with which these words were penned? I mean, it’s easy to let our thoughts wander and be centered around our current circumstances, successes, and failures, only to be re-focused on Christ during a later time of worship. But here, Peter is asking his audience to be intentional about placing their thoughts on more eternal matters, and to actively set their hope on the coming grace of the Lord. It’s an action. Our minds need to be conditioned accordingly.

I was reading in Matthew 16 this morning, and in verses 21-23, Jesus foretold his death to his disciples for the first time. Peter couldn’t believe his ears. He rebuked the Lord and told him that those things he predicted would never happen to him. Check out Jesus’ response: “Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Put yourself in Peter’s shoes for a moment…Don’t you think that this response from Jesus would rattle you? Perhaps it would even scare you. Here Peter thought he was defending the Lord, and looking out for his well-being, when he was rebuked for not thinking about the things of God. Peter had not yet grasped the big picture. He has not yet understood the warfare that Jesus was calling him to participate in.

I cannot say that Peter had this incident in mind when he wrote his later letter urging his audience to set their minds and their hope on eternal things, but I do believe that Jesus’ words caused him to consider what a heavenward mind really looked like. Peter began to consider the paradox.

I don’t know about you, but I know that I certainly do not spend enough time thinking about Heaven and about the coming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that’s why I am often consumed by my troubles and circumstances. Maybe that’s why I am so selfish…

It is so freeing to be able to think about more than self, about things much more important and meaningful than self. Followers of Christ have been granted this privilege. May we, by the Spirit’s strength, choose to capitalize on this freedom.  An active choice to think about certain things probably does not come naturally to you, (I know it doesn’t for me!) but that’s probably why it took Peter a good rebuking to even begin to consider to change the way he thought.

“May I run the race before me,

Strong and brave to face the foe

Looking only unto Jesus

As I onward go.”