“But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.”
be serious
“Serious” comes from two words: to keep safe and mind. This is a term of mental health — to be in our right mind, to be reasonable, sensible and serious, to keep our head, to be temperate and discreet, to show self-control, to come to our senses, to learn self-control. Peter says in effect, “Preserve your sanity. Keep things in their proper proportion.
“This is what is important while under duress. “Guard your mind.” God expects us to stabilize our thought pattern. Why should Christians get upset and fall apart when trial comes?
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).Peter wants us to keep our minds safe, to preserve our sanity. A great attribute of sanity is that it sees things in proper balance. It sees what is important and what is not. It is not impulsive and capricious. It is not subject to fanaticism nor indifference. It sees the circumstances of time in the light of eternity. Circumstance finds its importance in the light of eternal values. When God gives us this perspective, all things take proper place in our thinking.
“Serious” signifies alertness (1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8; 2 Timothy 4:5; 1 Peter 1:13). Metaphorically, it does not in itself imply watchfulness, but is used in association with it to mean thinking soberly. Christians are to be clear in their thinking about how to live the Christian life. God wants our minds stayed and solid. Such a mind restricts excesses from coming into our lives.
“Be serious” is an urgent command. It demands that we deal decisively with our instability, without panicking. The person who is never at rest does not do much praying. Stability comes from orientation to the plan of God. When we keep balance in our thought life we are not flighty and carried away by distorted thinking or by attacks from people.
The idea is that God wants us to have a life free from frivolous and irresponsible living. We take life seriously. We understand the consequences of our decisions for time and eternity. We know the impact of our decisions on self and others and take a responsible approach to life. We do not abandon ourselves to such excitement that we lose self-control. We cultivate spiritual calmness.
Principle:
God wants us to establish balance in times of disaster.
Application:
Christians should have stability in their thinking. Do you keep your thinking stable in times of trouble? It is very easy to allow some disaster to cause a wide variety in the consistency of our thinking. Our thinking determines how well we live the Christian life.
The Christian life comes down to what we think. Mental attitude sins such as bitterness, antagonism, fear, worry, anxiety, jealousy or a guilt complex will destroy our stability. We need this stability before we enter the storm. If we enter suffering conditions without stability, we will crack up mentally.
We need something greater than ourselves to face disaster conditions. This greater thinking reflects upon the Word of God and His providential care for us. The more of the Word we get into our orientation toward life, the more stable we will be. We will have greater capacity to deal with whatever we face. As you move into the storms of life, we need to have the Word firmly lodged in your thinking patterns. This will give us the stability we need in the trials of life.
Some Christians enter psychotic or neurotic dimensions even without being under heavy duress. If we buckle under the charge of the mosquito, how will we handle the charge of the elephant? How we handle the former will determine how we handle the latter. In principle, the elephant should go down the same way as the mosquito. It is when we are in the normal experiences of life that we need to learn how to cope with mosquito issues. We cannot depend on other people to help us. This is something that we must learn for ourselves.
Do you approach life frivolously and irresponsibly? Do you take life seriously? We should keep the importance of eternal issues before us at all times. We need to be aware of the consequences of our actions both for time and eternity. We need to be aware of the effects of our actions on ourselves and on others.
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