Welcome aboard friends!  We’ve just begun a journey together to discover great Bible truths about Israel’s past, present, and future…and our future as well!  We set forth objectives yesterday, so let’s dig into those a bit deeper.

 

This is a Bible study, so I hope you will take time to actually read the passages.  I’ll link them for you, to make it simple.  We’ll start in 1 Peter 1.  Verses 13-16 are our target verses, but verses 3-5 provide the context.  In verses 3-5, what do the phrases “…reserved in heaven for you…” and “…to be revealed in the last time…” imply?  Yes!  He is revealing things in the last days.

 

Most certainly, I believe Peter is speaking to believers and is referencing the end times.  That answers the “who” and “when” questions in verses 13-16.  This is God’s recipe for believers to be rapture-ready, and I see at least 5 ingredients:

 

1. Prepare your mind for action.  (Verse 13)  Some translations say “gird up the loins of your mind.” In those days, men wore long robes, so when it was time to work, the robes would be pulled up and tied around the waist.  In the same way, we are to “gird up the loins of our mind” in order to clear away the thoughts that get in the way.  Is your mind filled with worry, doubts, fear, or revenge?  Clear them away!  Prepare your mind for action!
2. Keep sober in spirit. (Verse 13)  Most of us understand “sober” as being the opposite of drunkenness, implying that one’s ability to reason is not clouded by the effects of some substance.  A person who is drunk doesn’t think clearly and typically does not make good decisions.  Likewise, there are plenty of things that cloud our ability to reason spiritually. False teaching abounds, lack of faith in God’s Word hinders us, and man’s fallible reasoning is often given authority over God’s Word.
3.  Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Verse 13)  We live in a world that is losing hope.  People are desperate.  Suicides abound.  School children are taught they are simply the result of evolutionary processes, thus life has no meaning.  Yet, as believers, we have hope…a Blessed Hope, named Jesus Christ.  That hope is fixed completely on the grace that will be revealed to us at His revelation!
4. Do not be conformed to former lusts. (Verse 14)  We can all remember our days before Christ, can’t we?  We were driven by our own selfish pleasures and desires.  Some may have had harsher consequences than others, but sin ruled us all.  Yet, Jesus took our sin and we were made righteous in Him when we were saved.  Don’t go back to former lusts!  The saving power of Jesus Christ is in you to protect you from that!
5. Be holy in all your behavior.  (Verse 15)  That’s a tall order, is it not?  As a matter of fact, it is absolutely impossible unless the Holy Spirit lives it out through us!  Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to be holy, the worse it gets!  Friends, I suggest that too often we attempt to make ourselves holy by doing “holy” things, rather than completely yielding to the God of the universe and giving Him freedom to do as He pleases in us and with us.  Stop trying, and allow the Spirit of the Living God to do His work in and through you!

 

Believers, I exhort you:  Be ready!  Our Bridegroom is coming!  Let’s finish our time today by asking the Lord to search our hearts and rid us of those things that hinder us from being ready.  Look up Psalm 139:23-24 and make it your prayer today!

 

Thanks for traveling with us!