Gird Up The Loins of Your Mind

1 Peter 1:13 says: "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 Jesus Christ..." (NKJV)  The following twelve verses exhort us to be holy as God is holy, to walk in obedience to the Lord with reverence and awe, to fully absorb the realized impact of our paid-in-full ransom through Christ's precious blood, and to let the natural (even supernatural) overflow of all this be our sincere and earnest love for one another.  Our time here is temporal and yet the consequences of this Gospel are eternal for all those who believe.  And this seems to be the truth the loins of our minds need to be girded with as we rest our hope on the fullness of God's grace that will culminate when Jesus returns.  This is a Good Word for a new year, a Good Word for a new life, and a Good Word forevermore...