Changing your mind

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

What a powerful statement we find here in the first letter of Peter, one that speaks prepared minds, clear thinking and graceful hope as seen in Jesus Christ.

Yet all too often the opposite is true. We think our selves into inactivity even in the area of our following of Jesus. In a real sense, our thoughts determine our actions.

One dark rainy night a salesman had a flat tire on a lonely road. But to his dismay he had no wheel brace. Seeing nearby farmhouse, he set out on foot. Surely the farmer would have a wheel brace, he thought. But would he even come to the door? And if he did, he'd probably be furious at being bothered. He'd say, "What's the big idea getting me out of bed in the middle of the night?" This thought made the salesman angry. Why, that farmer is a selfish old clod to refuse to help me.

Finally the man reached the house. Frustrated and drenched, he banged on the door. "Who's there?" a voice called out from a window overhead.

"You know good and well who it is," yelled the salesman, his face red with anger. "It's me! And you can keep your old wheel brace! I wouldn't borrow it is it was the last one in the county."

Extreme, yes, but within this humorous tale is more than an element of truth when it comes to our thinking. In our text, Peter tells us to set our hope on the grace that Christ gives us. It is the great characteristic of the Christian who lives in hope; and because loving in hope enables us to endure the trials of the present. Anyone can endure struggle and effort and toil, if they are certain that it is all leading somewhere. That is why the athlete accepts their training and the student their study. For the Christian the best is always still to come. We can live with gratitude for all the mercies of the past, with resolution to meet the challenge of the present and with the certain hope that in Christ the best is yet to be.

Eternal God, please help me have the patience and faithfulness to let you fully form my character and develop the spiritual wisdom that my world lacks and that I so much need. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.