Tuesday-Get Ready
- Chet Gladkowski
- Mar 8
- 4 min read
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:13-15
No one, and I mean no one would ever accuse me of being into fashion. I really don’t buy something because of the make or logo. Living in a small town in Central Florida, the latest in the world of fashion can be found in a thrift store. If you’re looking for the fashion runway where I live, you’d go to Walmart.
That’s why the movie, The Devil Wears Prada is so unusual. Not into fashion at all yet I really like this movie. The characters and relationships are the main thing. The world of fashion is just the framework for the movie to hang on.
My favorite scene is where Meryl Steep arrives at the office ahead of schedule. Everyone immediately scrambles to change everything to what her character, Miranda Priestly, wants. They clear their desks. They change their shoes. They run around like chickens with their heads cut off to make everything spotless. When Stanley Tucci’s character learns that Miranda is coming, he opens a door and shouts, “Alright everyone, gird your loins[1].”
When Stanley’s character says gird your loins, he’s telling everyone to get ready. To be prepared because someone or something that’s very challenging is headed their way. It may be OK right now, but something’s headed their way that can make life very painful.
It’s like the night we were asleep in our beds in our brand-new house in Delaware. It was the first and only house we had built from the ground up. And I really didn’t want anything to happen to it. We’d sunk every last nickel into it and it had to last us for a long while.
Around 2:47 in the morning, this siren went off. Not the siren on a police car or fire truck. No, this was really different and really loud. I’d never heard anything like this since all those air raid drills back when we were convinced that the Russians were about to launch nuclear missiles at us.
After getting up and looking out the window, I figured that it wasn’t the Russians but a tornado warning. Because someone had actually seen a tornado, they wanted everyone to get up and move to a safe place in their homes. In other words, they wanted us to gird our loins because a tornado could really bring a lot of pain and destruction.
This is what Peter is telling everyone reading his letter. The conditions and times are ripe for trials and persecutions. They are headed their way with 100% certainty So, now is the time to prepare for them. Peter gives three steps that everyone needs to do on a daily basis.
Alert. We need to keep our focus and attention on who God is and all he’s done. He must be the center of life. The captain of our soul. The one we give our everything to. Why? He made us. He’s so much greater, bigger, and more powerful than anyone or anything that brings trials or persecutions. And while we were helpless, he saved us[2].
Sober. Not just a little bit sober but fully sober. All the way sober. There can’t be a time that we’re not ready to take action against trials or persecution. We can’t be medicating ourselves to the point that we’re not able to think clearly. To react to the oncoming enemy. To take shelter and rest in the shadow of the Almighty[3].
Set your hope. Unlike the weak kind of hope we think of, this hope is rock solid. It’s a hope you can build your life on. It’s a hope you can trust. When we set our hope, it’s a hope that’s complete. It’s a hope that’s mature. It’s a hope that we’ve worked on for a long time till it’s finished. A set kind of hope doesn’t disappear when trials and persecution come. It doesn’t disappoint[4]
To be perfectly honest, we don’t like to think about faith in Jesus like this. Since salvation is free to us by grace through faith[5], it’s easy. Because it costs us nothing, we can take it or leave it. People focus totally on Jesus paying for all our sins and just skip over the whole idea that God wants to change the way we live. That he wants us to show thankful love to him by living how he wants and serving people.
Salvation may be free to you and me, but it cost God his one and only son. He took the weight of all our sins and paid the terrible debt that we owed God[6]. And he didn’t stop when it got hard either. He stayed on the cross till it was finished[7]. Because it cost God so much, he has earned the right to tell us to get ready. To be prepared. Trials and persecutions are coming. Are we ready? Are you ready?
Noodling Questions
Why don’t we think about trials and persecutions very much? Explain
Describe a time in your life when your faith caused you pain.
How can we get ready right now for what’s coming?
[2] Romans 5:8-10
[3] Psalm 91:1
[4] Romans 5:5
[5] Ephesians 2:8
[6] 2 Corinthians 5:21
[7] John 16:30
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