Rest in His grace
Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 1 Peter 1:13
This verse builds on yesterday’s passage and shows us how we can greatly rejoice in life even while going through life’s difficulties. It says that we are to “gird up the loins of your mind.” Simply put: pay attention to what you are thinking about and focused on. It tells us to steer our thinking toward God’s grace and then park it there. We are to remain focused on the grace of our salvation in Christ Jesus. This takes some practice.
Think about it, when you are doing your day to day activity, you are mostly focused on that, especially if your time is spent with other people. However, the first chance your mind gets, it defaults back to what ever you are concerned about. Maybe it is what you are going to be doing next, maybe it is about something that happened earlier or maybe it is something you are afraid is going to happen. The point is, your mind is always going, and it is up to you to control where your thoughts end up.
So, initially, you have some training to do. First you have to recognize that your thoughts are trying to take you some place. Then you have to decide where you want to go in your thinking. For example, if you are worried about something, your thoughts will always take you back to that worry. Not only that, your thoughts will guide you through all the possible outcomes from not so good to the worst possible. Your mind is always going, and always creating ideas. You must come to the point that you are directing those creative ideas in a positive direction. This is why todays scripture says to take control of you thinking and make your default thought be resting/at peace in His grace that has you covered for every circumstance you face.
So today I want to encourage you to first of all consider what your default thoughts are. Are they going toward a positive, grace filled direction? Or are they always heading to the fear of what could happen in a negative way? Begin today to take authority over your thoughts and purposefully direct them to God’s grace. Choose a verse to turn to every time you notice your thinking going idle and let that be your thought process in the down time. Today begin to greatly rejoice at the possibilities of what God’s grace can accomplish in your life! Now that’s something to focus on!
Today’s scripture reading: 1 Peter 1:13-21
