Battle Ready

“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 1:13

While traveling in Israel several years ago, I met some Israeli soldiers and learned that every Israeli citizen serves in the military—both men and women—at the age of eighteen. Men serve three years, while women serve two. With the entire populace possessing military experience in a nation at the epicenter of conflict, the entire country could be conscripted to fight in a rather short time, if war were to occur.

For the Christian, the concept of being battle-ready is similar. We know we are in a conflict with the world and the devil—with the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, waiting for his opportunity to strike. Therefore, we must be on guard and ready to fight at a moment’s notice—our minds focused and ready for the task ahead.

Peter understood that in the pursuit of God, the mind must be fully engaged and ready for action. The term in Greek literally means “girding up the loins of your mind”—a picture of one pulling their garment in and holding it so that one may run unhindered. The idea of “girding up” the mind does not necessarily mean only the intellectual process, but a mental resolve and preparation for Christ’s coming, or being battle-ready and then ordering one’s life in light of that fact.

Moving from being battle-ready, we are to be “sober-minded” or balanced in how we conduct our lives. It means having clarity of mind and good judgment. There must not be a drop-off between the spiritual life and the everyday life. The two are dynamically fused as one—God did not mean for us to be so spiritual as to be no earthly good. On the contrary, it is our focus on the eternal that allows us to function and live in love and grace in the temporal. With our hope set on the grace to be revealed on the day of Christ’s coming, we order our lives accordingly because we know that we will each

“appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”—2 Corinthians 5:10. 

 Knowing that we will give an account of our lives, we live for God’s glory.

Being battle-ready means actively nourishing our spiritual life, which in turn helps transform our everyday life. We spend time in His Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with God and His people, keeping ourselves in a state of battle-readiness so that God may receive glory. We have peace and joy in the present because the future is secure. May God receive glory because of it. Amen.