Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing God...
Body, Mind, Spirit…
Shalom!
“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”” (1 Peter 1:13–16, NLT)
In the earlier verses of chapter 1 Peter tells us not to be surprised when life rears up its ugly side and hits us right between the eyes. And if that proves to be true at some point today how will Jesus reveal himself to you?
Experience has taught me the struggles with life's ugly side are fought not just in my mind but in my spirit as well. Peter tells us first to prepare our minds FOR action, to BE sober-minded, to BE holy what he’s telling us that it is the relationship of the mind and the spirit that we must strive to perfect. Our minds are a transfer point between our bodies and our spirits. Another way of looking at it is to see the mind as a cell phone tower that transfers the message from one cell phone to another.
When we prepare our minds through prayer, exposing ourselves to God’s Word, and meditation the Holy Spirit begins revealing and empowering us to respond to how Jesus would have handled the situation. There are times when the phrase "You shall be holy, for I am holy," throws us because there's no way we can be as holy as God is holy. But when you stop to read the sentence prior to it “But now you must be holy in everything you do” the holiness Peter is talking about is living with the heart of Jesus. Remember the WWJD "What Would Jesus Do" movement that has since fell by the wayside? Living our lives as Jesus would is more than just a movement it is the way of holiness.
Take a minute or so right now quiet your thoughts about today and invite the Holy Spirit to walk and talk with you about Jesus. That may not change your day, but it WILL change you!
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”**
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
** Romans 15:13, NLT