DAILY DEVOTIONAL – June 11, 2020
“Keep Moving!“
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are our victory. You are our strength. You have called us to be Your own and given us Your Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith so that we would remain faithful and effective in our mission to shed the Light of Your Gospel with a darkened world. By Your grace, guard our faith, and keep us ever vigilant and moving forward toward You. Amen.
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-16
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. 14 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. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Devotion – “Keep Moving”
Did you hear what Peter said in his opening sentence? Peter said, “Prepare your minds for action” and “exercise self-control.” The word used in the Greek here for the word prepare is the word “anazōnnymi” and it literally means to gird up, to fasten or to suit up. Peter is writing to Christians like you and I who have been called to faith and given the gift of faith in Christ. Before God so graciously called us to Himself and opened our eyes to the Truth of His salvation in Christ, we were held captive to our sin and we were under the deceptive control of the devil. But God in His mercy and forgiveness freed us from captivity by crushing the devil and paying for sins through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. The moment that the Holy Spirit brought us from death to life in Christ, that is the moment that the devil set his sights on us. The truth is friends we as Christians, now living in a world in which we do not belong, live amidst constant warfare whether we realize it or not.
As Peter will say later in chapter 5, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” The devil does not prowl looking for those who have no faith in Christ, for there is nothing for him to devour or destroy. The devil prowls looking for someone of faith to devour…the devil hates God and hates those who love God. And the devil is on the prowl – he is not passive but very active, and much like a lion, the devil looks first for the weak in the herd…for those in the flock that are most likely to fall behind or remain static in their faith.
This is why Peter says, “Stay alert and prepare your minds for action.” The language Peter uses reminds me of a battle field. When it comes to combat warfare, any soldier will tell you that the best defense is a better offense. The whole purpose of combat strategy and reconnaissance is to develop a plan of attack and not defense. One very well accomplished combat strategist I know put it this way, “If you are not on offense, then you are on defense.” He went on to add that this is exactly why combat training and boot camp is the way that it is; relentless, grueling and 110% overbearing. Soldiers have to be conditioned, they have to be prepared for action…prepared to be able to work through the fear and the natural instinct to freeze or retreat in battle. The reality is that fewer lives are lost and a victory is more quickly accomplished with an effective offense. So soldiers gird themselves with everything they need to keep moving forward. Sure, there are times that a temporary halt or regrouping is needed in order to resupply or adjust tactics, but as much as is humanly possible, you never stay still…you always keep moving forward.
The same is true for our faith. Christ has saved us. Our salvation is secure by faith alone in Him, and because of that, our faith is the very thing the devil seeks to destroy. This is why Peter implores us to not only prepare and gird ourselves for action, but also as he says to “exercise” our faith. The thoughts and motions and requirements demanded of a soldier in battle have to be automatic and second nature. Soldiers train constantly to ensure they are able to do what is required of them the moment it is required without hesitation. Hesitation, or remaining still and static, is what can get you killed. Same is true with our faith friends. To be effective, our faith must be exercised.
It’s not enough for a soldier to know what he is supposed to do, to know in theory how to maneuver on the battlefield and know in theory how to operate his vehicle or weapon or execute whatever job they may have. The soldier has to exercise that knowledge and put it into practice accurately. Likewise, the strength of our faith and the efficacy of our faith is dependent not just in us knowing about God and Jesus in His Word, but by God’s grace through faith, exercising that faith and doing the Word.
Make Sunday worship a priority. Make Bible Study a priority. Exercise your faith with regular prayer. Don’t just read the Word of God, know the Word of God. Make regular fellowship with Christians a priority. Serve your neighbor regularly. Keep your family in the Word and in prayer and focused on the only thing that matters…the only Truth that there is…the only hope we have…an active faith in Christ that is always moving forward.
God bless you my friends, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
