So my mind has loins—Who knew?!

So my mind has loins—Who knew?!            

The loins of my mind—say what?

“Gird up the loins of your mind,” was the instruction of Peter to first century followers of Jesus. Those two words, gird and loins—we just don’t use in everyday conversation in the Twenty-first Century. But to the early church members this was a powerful statement. It was a word picture that made perfect sense.

Peter instructed: “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Christ Jesus” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV).

In preceding verses of this chapter, Peter had celebrated our living hope, incorruptible inheritance, genuine faith and refinement through trials. (These verses were addressed in couple of my previous posts.) Using the transition word, therefore, Peter brings us into a progression of thought and instruction.

Loins refer to the area of the body, on both sides of the spine between the hipbones. In this area is the center of procreative power and, in Bible times, was considered the seat of strength and vigor. A person’s loin area would be covered and protected.

“And God said to him (Jacob), ‘I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins” (Genesis 35:11 KJV).

A person would gird up his loins when preparing to run a race, commence hard work, or enter into battle. Given that his apparel consisted of a dress-like garment hanging down knee to ankle length, the fabric would be a hindrance to free movement.

So to prepare for action a person would reach down, gather up the cloth and tuck it up under his belt, also called a girdle. During the course of the action, if loose ends happened to drop down, the loose hanging clothing would interfere with winning the race/battle or completing the task at hand. 

But Peter is not talking about an actual garment. He said, “the loins of your mind.” The mind is the origin of our words and actions. We must take control of this place where our thoughts reside in order to maintain lives that please and reflect Christ. 

Joyce Meyer addresses this topic very well in her book, Battlefield of the Mind. She points out that the mind is a battlefield where our thoughts war against one another. I experience conflicting thoughts relatively often. At times many different issues are going in various directions. Sometimes good versus evil is warring on the inside of my head. When was the last time you experienced that?

So Peter is saying that we must gather our thoughts together and bring every thought captive into the way God sees things and in a way which honors Him.

When we do this, we’re achieving the admonition of Paul when he said, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”  (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NKJV).

We do have control of our thoughts. I know it’s hard to gain control when negative or impure thoughts take hold. We must reach down and gather up those loose dangling thoughts—rein in those racing anxieties—and gird up the loins of our minds.

If we don’t:

- we’re too distracted to focus on and complete, with excellence, the work we’re called to do.

- our emotions may draw us into negativity and depression.

- wrong thinking goes uncorrected.

- we’re inclined to believe lies of Satan instead of the truth of God’s Word.

- we will miss out on our God ordained destiny.

- the above situations will have a negative impact on our family life, social life, physical health, and—most importantly—our spiritual health. 

Like the runner who did not gird up, we’ll lose the race.

In addition to girding up the loins of our minds, Peter said, “be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Christ Jesus.”

Peter says, therefore do these three things:

1. Gird up the loins of our minds—bracing up to take action with focus and determination. 

2. Be sober. This doesn’t just refers to not overindulging in alcohol. It means we’re to be mindful, self-controlled, using wisdom, and being watchful along the way.

Other than the shed blood of Jesus, there is nothing on the outside that can make us righteous or holy. This soberness comes through self-control, mindfulness, wise decision-making, and the power and help of the Holy Ghost who resides within us. Recklessness in our thoughts and attitudes is like drunkenness on the inside and leads to reckless decisions and actions. 

3. Rest in the hope and grace abundantly provided by the revelation of Christ Jesus in our spirits and lives. Three big words here—rest, hope, and grace. In other words, trust God. That’s what faith is.

To rest is to relax and let God do His part. After we have obeyed God in the areas he instructed, our Lord steps in and goes beyond what we could ask, think, or imagine. Amidst all this is hope—living hope. [Living hope is addressed in a previous post.]

This hope lifts us from despair and fear. Peter tells why it is real and alive. It’s because we rest our hope upon God’s grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” Ephesians 1:8-9a).

Amazing grace has been provided to us through the revelation of Jesus Christ and His provision of salvation, including abundant life this side of Heaven. Hallelujah—thank you, Lord.

As in every aspect of our spiritual growth and stability, knowledge of God’s Word comes into play here. We cannot expect to be strong in faith and continue in spiritual growth without a steady diet of Holy Scripture. 

Let’s end this post looking at 1 Peter 1:13 from the New American Standard Version and The Message (paraphrase).

“Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed” (NEAV). 

“So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy” (The Message).

 

SO, let’s just do it—gird up the loins of our minds, be sober, and rest in the hope...! AMEN!  

In my next post we’ll look at ways we successfully take our thoughts captive. 

©Copyright 2017 Connie Wohlford

Your Kids—For such a time as this

Your Kids—For such a time as this

Are you anxious about the world in which you’re raising your children? 

Does your plea to God go something like: “Oh, God, what kind of world are my children growing up in—so much hate and violence!”?

It happened again a couple days ago. My friend, who’s a young mom with an infant and a four year old, posted: “Unlike a lot of people these days, I will teach my children to love—not hate, judge, or condemn. It breaks my heart that this is the world my sweet babies have to grow up in.” 

My reply to her: “Good for you. Always know that God deliberately put you and your babies on the planet for just this time in history to serve His great purpose. You’re teaching them about God and His ways—that’s the main thing.”

Hers is the heart cry of many parents today. The world is scary and seems to get worse with each passing day.

I can’t imagine raising children without the hope of Christ—without the assurance that my children (and grandchildren) are on God’s side and in His care.

Even in cases where a child has wandered away from God or is floundering in their faith, parents can still pray in faith for the prodigal and confused. Those parents can still have the assurance that God knows, God cares, and God loves their child even more that the parents themselves (which is hard to even imagine).

We parents and grandparents look out across the landscape of our world and see all manner of possible troubles heading in the direction of our innocent offspring. Our insides may tremble at the horrors both real and imagined. 

When our minds go wild with the terrifying possibilities we have got to STOP! We must lasso and pull in these destructive thoughts. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

So we need to know that we have access to supernatural weapons. We don’t stand alone, struggling to protect our children from evil whether it be man-made or demonic. God wants to fight for us and alongside of us. And He has an angelic army at His bidding. In the world are many arguments and high things exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. A synonym for argument is influence. There are countless influences and high-minded people out there who are against God and all that God represents. But what is our knowledge of God and how can we bring our thoughts captive into the obedience of Christ? 

Let’s look at that passage in The Message:

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity” (1 Corinthians 10:4-6 The Message).

So we can be confident that God knows what He’s doing. He determines when each of us is born. He planned out when Moses would be born and knew how He would protect him from the murderous hands of Pharaoh’s soldiers.

He had it all figured out when to put a ruddy, bright-eyed boy on Bethlehem’s hillsides tending sheep. Then in God’s timing, that shepherd boy became a man after God’s own heart and the greatest king in Israel’s history.

God saw to it that Billy Graham would be born in 1918 and grow up on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. He came to be known as America’s Pastor, and showed the way to salvation to millions of souls around the globe.

And in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to redeem Mankind. Jesus was born to just the right earthly parents, at just the right time, and in just the right place. Then on just the right day, He was crucified to pay the debt we owed for our sins. And in just the right instant He was quickened back to life.

Child worshiping God

We needn’t question why God brought our little ones into such a harsh world. Instead we can be confident that His timing is impeccable. 

When Esther feared for her life at the request of her elder cousin, Mordecai, he then said to her, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

We can be sure that our children, our grandchildren, and we ourselves have been born into this world for such a time as this. Just like David we can be confident that God knew us before we were born. He knew ahead of time the things we would say and do. He watched over us as we were formed in our mother’s womb and prophesied His great plan for our lives, as he wrote in Psalms 139.

Does this mean that our kids will always make the right decisions and stay on the straight and narrow? No. We didn’t, did we? 

Like us, they have free will. And we really wouldn’t change that. So we pray, and train, and teach, and pray some more. And in all that, we trust God, knowing he handpicked each of us to be on His planet at His timing in history.

Back to my friend with the infant and four year old. In her next comment in our conversation, she said, “When your 4 year old randomly starts singing ‘God is on the move—hallelujah!’ you know you're doing something right. lol”

Yes, amen! She and her husband are doing lots right. Let’s rear our children, according to God’s instructions, not binging intimidated by the world around us. We’re not in this alone. God has given us everything we need to get this most important job right. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 ESV). 

Let’s pray. Oh, Lord, You know the cries of our hearts. Thank You that You hear our pleas and that You care. We’re grateful that You told us to cast our cares on You for You care for us. Though hard to imagine, we know You love our children even more than we do ourselves. Help us to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of You, Lord. Thank You, Father for hearing and answering our prayers. In Jesus name—Amen. 

©Copyright 2017 Connie Wohlford