Feeding the Sheep - Blessed Life 7

Chosen To Live a Holy Life

"Be alert and think straight."

1 Peter 1:13a

[This is the 37th message of this series]

This lesson is intended for mature believers (or adulting believers). For a more orderly study, please go through all the previous messages first, if you haven't yet.

1 Peter

[This will be the 7th of a series within a series]

Living the Blessed Life

Peter instructed the first church (among other things) to be alert and think straight.

Think Straight

In other translations, this verse reads:

Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober.

and

Roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game.

In the previous lesson of this series, we mentioned how God wants us to renew our mind.

This is because so many of the things we have learned or were passed down to us aren't really true, or at least not entirely true.

Most unbelievers say people who believe in Christ are brainwashed. But if they really are to be honest or unbiased, they will have to admit that many of the things they personally believe in, sounds ridiculous as well or cannot be proven or proven untrue.

Personal Choice

Many Christians are Christians not by personal choice. They probably were born into or married into the faith or live in a society were most people are Christian and the beliefs just rubbed off on them.

But Christianity is not something that is forced on anyone or incidental in their life. Christ didn't force anyone to believe in His teachings. He taught to those who wanted to hear what He had to say. People who got interested, went back the following day to hear more. And in time, they made a personal commitment (decision) to believe and follow Christ.

Tradition

Christ demolished many old teachings, traditions and old beliefs. People followed Him because they finally were finding answers to their life questions and through His teachings they were finally making some sense of their world and what they have been going through.

New Teaching

His words have power and it made sense. Although it will not make sense for those who will merely cut and paste phrases to listen to. Life is not like a rushed and haphazard school paper that we need to write to get a passing grade and move on. It is a long journey that begins in a single step. So is Christianity.

Step one is to put our head in the game. Think. Christ didn't go and look for blind followers. His closest disciples who ended up spreading Christ's teachings didn't even believe Him, Peter, Paul, his brothers. All of His followers doubted Him denied Him and even persecuted Him. In time, they believed on their own accord. And the more they started to believe, the more they understood and realize that everything Jesus was saying made sense, so much sense that they refused to renounce their faith and were martyred for Christ.

From the moment they first believed, they lived a new life, a new life in Christ, the blessed life.

Be Alert

Christ told His followers to be alert. Being alert means first, to be aware of the world they are still living in. It is not a world which will accept them.

Second, is to always pray.

Prayer is a conversation with God. God speaks through Scriptures, through our circumstances, through other people and through the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not merely us doing the talking to God but is more on us listening and walking in His Spirit.

This is the blessed life we were called into. It is not rocket science (not hard to understand) but it is not nonsense or without any sense either. If you want in on this new life, on this blessed life, you too will have to make a decision. Don't just brush it off, mock it or judge it because of your upbringing, your learning, your preconceived notions about it or because of what other people are saying for or against it. Christ spoke to those who want to listen, you too will get to know who Christ is or what Christianity is about, only if you would start and continue to listen.