TWO COMPONENTS OF HOPE -- Devotional for August 3, from "Good Seeds"

Gird your mind for action; keep sober in spirit; fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (I Peter 1:13)

For the Christian, hope is just another word for heaven. Our ticket there is paid in full by the grace of God, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for us to do. In Ephesians 6 Paul says we’ll need the whole armor of God if we expect to stand strong against the attacks of the devil or make inroads into enemy territory with the gospel. First we must “gird our loins with truth” (verse 14). Peter’s command is the same: “gird your mind for action.” Apart from the truth our actions are fruitless and useless. Without it we can make no headway in the conquest of evil or the establishment of righteousness. COMPONENT #1 is knowledge. “What king,” asked Jesus, “when he anticipates meeting another in battle does not first sit down to contemplate his chances, calculating the risks as he considers his strengths and weaknesses?” (Luke 14:31). When we go out to face a world under the spell of the Evil One, we don’t start with hype and pep rallies. We don’t start with self at all, but with the Savior. We go away to a quiet place to get alone with Him and His Word. At His feet we sit, with an open Bible, conversing and communing. We learn to know Him first; then we learn of His purpose and plan, and our part in it. These private times with God prepare us for gathering with the saints to strategize, study, and worship together. But in it all we do not leave our brains behind. We do not depend on unreliable feelings and emotions, but on solid truth. Paul said, “I shall sing with the spirit, but I shall sing with the mind also” (I Corinthians 14:15). It is when Christians lose their hunger for the Word of God that they begin to fail in the ways of God. It is when they become slovenly as workman in the Scriptures, failing to "handle accurately the Word of Truth" (II Timothy 2:15) that they garner shame and lose their reputation with God and man alike. Believers give the devil opportunity to make inroads into their fellowship and to wreak havoc with their message, when they do not gird their minds with the precious and powerful Word of God. COMPONENT #2 is sobriety of spirit. “Be not drunk with wine” said Paul, “but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” We must not foolishly allow ourselves to become intoxicated with the wines and ways of the world, deceived by empty pleasures and false promises. “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ we know better: destruction is coming. They are asleep to reality, but we are awake and alert to it” (I Thess. 5:2-7). We are not somber children of the night (gloomy, melancholy, temperamental), but rather sober children of the day (disciplined, temperate and full of hope).