1 Peter 1.13
“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, and be sober-minded … set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Navigating the challenges of a fallen world requires faith-driven mental discipline. When you are mentally disciplined, you don’t focus on trying to control the situation, you focus on trusting God and controlling yourself. When confronted by a difficult or challenging situation, mentally disciplined people don’t dwell on how they feel, they focus on what needs to be done.
When mentally undisciplined people are confronted by difficulties and challenges, they focus on self and circumstances, they fixate on the negative, and they avoid or even complain about doing what needs to be done.
These two different mindsets produce two very different ways of responding to the challenges of life. The mindset of “what needs to be done” produces clarity and courage, and it responds with wisdom and courage. The mindset of “how do I feel” fixates on the negative, and it produces anxiety and stress.
“Prepare your mind for action and be sober-minded” is an admonition to be mentally disciplined in anticipation of the situations and circumstances of life.
“Prepare your mind” means to get yourself into the right mindset … to get your mind right. Responding to the stuff of life requires mental preparation. Your response to events and situations is internal and mental first, and external and behavioral second. What is happening inside of you is far more important than what is happening outside of you.
“Be sober-minded” means to think clearly. When your mind is impaired by an intoxicating substance it does not see or think clearly, and it puts you at risk. Negative emotion and undisciplined impulses are “intoxicating substances” that compromise your ability to think clearly.
This is why 1 Corinthians 14 says, “Be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature.”
The Lord is calling.
