Jesus is coming back, and we are told, cautioned, and warned to be ready.
My lectionary reading for today was 1 Peter 1:13-21. In it I read, “So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus is revealed. Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. Instead, be holy in all you do, just as God who called you is holy.”
The same scripture says: “Be Holy because I am holy.” The sacred words continue, “You call Him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of our lives here on earth in reverence of Him.”
I hope you will read all of 1 Peter Chapter 1 in your own Bible beginning to end. No one knows when Jesus is coming back except Father God. But we are told to show ourselves, to practice showing ourselves as holy and perfect in Him. Action is required. Faith without works is dead.
God makes your salvation and perfects you as His gift, but you must act on that. Giving birth is active – no action, no baby. Rebirthing is active – like plants and cells renewing after a season. It is always a continuing process of perfecting.
Strive for and work for perfecting yourself by practicing the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
At one time I was a perfectionist, hard on myself and others. I wanted everything perfect. I came to see that by being so rigid I shut out the perfection God requires. I did not see His will, His way!
Now, as I am aging (and still seeking and learning), I am returning to the daily prayer to be perfect – to act it out, letting the Holy Spirit lead, guide and teach me! Each of us must make our own choices. You and I are not the Perfector, God is. I desire a perfect, blameless heart with the self-discipline to let Him give it to me.
Father, you have stated that You will give us new and creative ideas (change our minds) and that the Holy Spirit will show and tell us things to come. I ask that You send Your Holy Spirit to help us in creating and developing new ways to do services in this community. Give us ideas for now and future services so we will be a blessing for people’s lives. Give us innovative concepts which translate into successful and more perfect growth, as well as blessings to us and others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Use us readers and the Ark of Faith together, Father, according to Revelations 19:10 “At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!”
