SPIRITUAL MENTAL PREPARATION (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.

1 Peter 1:13b NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the first chapter of Peter’s letter to “God’s chosen people” who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (v. 1 NLT), we find him writing verses meant to get his brother and sister Christians, mentally prepared from a spiritual perspective to go forth and do what Jesus had called them to do, to make disciples of all nations.

In yesterday’s first message in this five message series, we saw how God’s Word calls Christian believers to prepare their minds spiritually before taking action with an emphasis on exercising self control. We discussed how this call for spiritual mental preparation could be achieved through prayer, reading and studying the scriptures, and submitting to the lead of the Holy Spirit.

As we move to part 2 of this series, we see a call for Christians to focus on what is central to their saved position in Christ, the matter of salvation by grace. Look again at these words from the second half of verse 13:

Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. NLT

At the heart of any spiritual mental preparation to carry out the actions the Lord calls us to with self control is the matter of the living hope we have through our belief in Christ Jesus. Earlier in this first chapter, we read these words from Peter on this matter:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in Heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this, you greatly rejoice. Vv. 3-6a

Every single person who willingly chooses to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior will not perish but gain everlasting life (John 3:16). Further, at the moment of their belief commitment, they receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, become a legitimate child of God, and are appointed as a co-heir to the very Kingdom of God along with Jesus, their Savior (Romans 8:14-17). And as Paul writes at the very end of Romans 8, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Vv. 38-39).

Friends, THIS is the “gracious salvation” that Peter is talking about, the sure promise of eternal life that will come to every single Christian believer when Jesus returns and is “revealed to the world”. It is a guarantee, born out of the great mercy and love of God, that all Christians are to place, not just some, but ALL of their hope in.

Today and every day, the scriptures are calling is to fix our minds and hearts on the good news of the Gospel and the living hope we have “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”, a living hope that’s given us “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade”, a blessed assurance that one day we will inhabit the place Jesus prepared for us and will come back to take us there (John 14:1-3).

Proper spiritual mental preparation must always be Gospel-centered.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.