Ready for Action

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

1 Peter 1:13, New International Version


I had to really go after this one as God is continuing to prepare me for his work, not mine.

So it was profitable to go back in to the the beginning of the chapter to see what is going on here

Verses 3-12 are about the future or the Christian’s hope. The emphasis is on the future dimension of our salvation expressed by Peter as praise (“blessed be” verse 2). This is the basis for our hope and good reason for rejoicing:

(1) God’s great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope (verse 3).

(2) We have been born again to obtain an inheritance … reserved in heaven for us (verse 4).

(3) We are being protected … for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (verse 5).

(4) We presently suffer trials and testings so that our faith may be tested and proven, to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (verse 7).

(5) We are obtaining as the outcome of our faith the salvation of our souls (verse 9).

Verses 10-12 point not to the future but to the past.

Then there is verse 13

The verse can be broken down into three commands:

(1) Gird up the loins of your mind. (Better translation but probably gets lost in Western culture)

(2) Be self-controlled.

(3) Fix your hope.

Gird up your loins refers to the clothing worn by most people during the time of Christ. It was a long garment and needed attention if you had to be ready to run or spring in to action. A person had to pick up the "robe" and tuck it in their belt so their legs were free and would not get tangled as they ran. This is what Peter is talking about here. I need to be ready at all times to spring in to action.

I also need to be self-controlled as I spring in to action since I want the focus of my action to be on the hope I have in Jesus Christ.

Not the hope I have in myself but the hope in the eternal God who made the heavens and the earth and he me made!

As God continues to make me more in his image, help me keep the right focus.

The focus on the hope I have in him by the grace he shows me EVERY day.

Let the grace flow in to me as I look to your spirit to guide me and continue to give me wisdom in all of life's challenges and trials.


Thank you for the HOPE I have in YOU.