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1 Peter 1:13
13 Wherefore [dio] gird up [anazonnumi] the loins [osphus] of your [humon] mind [dianoia], be sober [nepho], and hope [elpizo] to the end [teleios] for [epi] the grace [charis] that is to be brought [phero] unto you [humin] at [en] the revelation [apokalupsis] of Jesus [Iesous] Christ [Christos]; KJV-Interlinear
13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. NASB
Gird up, is a term for preparation. Loins, is symbolism for the thoughts and actions of your life. Sober, is a term for serious restraint. Hope is a term for confidence through faith.
When we gird up our lives, we prepare in accordance with the mandates of God, through our daily study of doctrine, through our residence in fellowship, through our understanding and application of doctrine to our daily lives (honesty, integrity, fairness, charity, kindness, support, responsibility, discernment, orientation to God, to life, to people, to self, etc., etc.).
And although this preparation in life for life includes the many things we do in our temporal life, the primary emphasis here applies to your spiritual preparation.
A temporal life without a spiritual life, is worthless. A spiritual life without a temporal life (without application of faith – review the study of James) is worthless.
To have a complete life, you must combine your spiritual life within your temporal life and the two combined, provide you with a thorough and rounded life, so long as your spiritual life has priority and is a legitimate spiritual life, and your temporal life operates within the rules and framework of the spiritual life.
The sober life, is one which resides in fellowship. Anything else, out of fellowship, means that you function within your sin nature and that is in effect a drunken life, a dysfunctional life, a quicksand life, a life that promises only lies.
And why should you prepare yourself, make yourself alert, be ready in life as a soldier is on call at a moments notice? Because God has a plan for your life, and that plan is a phenomenal plan. But that plan, the greatest and best portions of that plan, applies only to those who come before Him with full preparation.
Your spiritual life is the greatest and most valuable possession that you can ever have.
While the world is going its own way, while the world is debating what to do or what not to do, while the world is full of opinions and ideas, God is the only one who possesses a viable plan, the only one who possesses the sovereignty to enforce the plan, and is the only one who possesses the power to accomplish it.
And He does it all for you.
On the evening of the very first Passover, God instructed Moses, and Moses instructed the people, to paint their doors with blood (salvation), to eat while standing (preparation in growth), to be packed with a light traveling pack (free from the burdens of the sin nature and the world), and to wait in readiness for the signal to move out of Egypt (to go immediately, at a moments notice, when God calls.
That too, is your mandate. Make your spiritual growth your number one priority, such that you will be ready for anything, when God calls on you, for whatever reason.
Your spiritual blessings are far too valuable to just let slip through your fingers, when, receiving them and keeping them, is the simplest thing in the world.
