April 3: Eyes Wide Open

Read 1 Peter 1:13-21

Our minds are transformed after we have been with Jesus. The resounding music stuck on repeat in our minds is His Gospel.

This fortifies our minds against attack and secures the site of spiritual warfare in favor of the Victor, Jesus.

Peter knew these things firsthand. He had walked with Jesus (on land and on sea), talked with Jesus, laughed with Jesus, and wept without Jesus. Peter was a walking example of a mind transformed.

But he had this exhortation to give to other Christians: “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.”

He gives three commands regarding our minds:

1. Prepare: the Old King Jimmy version says, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” Get ready! Peter knew the reproductive and creative capacity of the renewed mind, and he wanted Christians to be ready to spring to action.

2. Be sober-minded: Not only was Peter encouraging believers to stay away from mind-altering substances, such as alcohol, but he also was warning them that they needed minds free from illusion. He wanted their minds to contain only pure truth.

3. Hope: Hope is a voluntary, active thing we must do with our minds. We must look forward eagerly to God’s fulfilment of all He said He would do.

Peter pleaded with his readers to use their minds like relentless hounds, sniffing from side to side, determining the facts from one side of an issue to the other to reached balanced, true conclusions.

He urged them not to go into the world in willful blindness, but to meet the world with eyes wide open.