How to Use "The Lust Dare"
Day #19: Sound Mind.
“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.”
-1 Peter 1:3(ESV)
Going back to the verse from 2
Timothy one more time, we are not given a spirit of fear. We discussed the
courage we are given, as well as the love, but the third part of that equation
is a sound mind. Some versions use the word self-control.
When we are afraid, our minds
grow fuzzy. It clouds our judgment, and our thinking, and just makes it a lot
harder to think in any amount of capacity. We lose sight of truth, of reason,
of logic, and of succinct thinking. But God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but has given us a sound mind.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.” –Romans 12:2
We are striving through this dare
to present our bodies as holy, our minds as acceptable to God, and are avoiding
the world that we might not grow callous and conform to what it presents as
perfectly acceptable. And we are told that the way we do that is by the renewing of our minds. God instead of
giving us a spirit of fear, renews our minds. He makes us capable of thinking
clearly, soundly, and of being sharp and on guard.
He calls us to prepare our minds
for action. Action against the temptations of the flesh that like to sneak in,
but can’t because we are on guard. He calls us to be sober-minded. Not to laugh
along with the sins of the world, but to be sober and call a spade a spade, and
then dispel it from our thoughts and from our lives.
And we do this by setting our hopes
fully on the grace that is revealed
to us in the life of Christ.
“And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” –John 1:14
“For the law was given
through Moses, but grace and
truth came through Jesus Christ.” –John 1:17
“ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
–Romans 3:23-24
“For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became
poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
-2
Corinthians 8:9
“That in the ages to
come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” –Ephesians 2:7
Jesus became flesh and dwelt among
us in an act of grace. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, setting all
free from the law. We are saved from the falling from the glory of God by the
grace of Jesus’ redemption. Jesus became poor as an act of grace. God showed
his exceeding grace through Jesus Christ. Grace, grace, grace. It is in the
setting of our hopes securely on this grace and on nothing else that we are
given a sound mind, able to sharpen any weapons we take into battle with us and
able to keep guard against anything trying to sneak in, no matter how subtle.
Hope in that grace, live not in
fear, and God gives you a sounder mind than you could have ever imagined.
“But the Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
–John 14:26
Today’s Dare
Search the scriptures for verses on grace portrayed in the
life and redemption of Jesus Christ. Take those verses to memory, and place
your hope in those verses. Do not let fear cloud your thinking, but instead
live with the sound mind that God grants.
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