Remaining Faithful to the Lord

In this day and age there are many distractions to cause us to be unfaithful to the Lord. Some may be subtle while others are more obvious. Nehemiah faced this while he was rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. He was invited to a meeting concerning his word, 6:1-4; an attempt to instill fear to stop the work, 5-9; a call to be outright disobedient to the Lord, 10-14; and undermining his work, 17-19. Nehemiah was wise and recognized all these situations and what the people behind them were trying to do. Nehemiah knew what God had called him to do and he did not stray from that call. Now, we must ask ourselves, "What is God's call on my life?" and "Am I remaining faithful to that call?" We find the answer to these questions in 1 Peter 1:3-5;13-16.

The first word in verse 13, "Therefore", directs our attention to the first 12 verses of this chapter, particularly verses 3-5. Based on the salvation and eternal inheritance the Lord has provided we are to remain faithful to Him.

The next phrase "preparing your minds for action" instructs us to be mentally and spiritually prepared for each day's events. We are in a spiritual warfare all the time and we must be prepared to encounter and to defeat our personal enemy, Satan. Not be prepared spiritually each day will hurt us spiritually.

"Being sober minded" means we must have our minds clear and without confusion. Satan is the master of confusion. He causes us to doubt who Jesus is and our salvation. He also tempts us to disobey the Word of God.

We are to "Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you..." We are not to place our hope and trust in anyone or anything in this world. Believers always trust in Christ for everything we need, in this life and the one to come.

In verse 14 we are to willfully submit to the Lord and then we absolutely refuse to allow the world to mold us into its image or to guide us by its philosophy. The passions, or desires, we had as non-believers are dead and we no longer follow them. They have no power over us!

In verse 15 we are "called to be holy." The verb "called", in this context, means the task the Lord has given to us is to become holy. We are holy in Christ but all Christians understand that we are still sinners saved by grace. The work of the Holy Spirit is to continue to convict us of sin, bring us to confession and repentance, and conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.

Also in verse 15 we read, "Since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy." The verb "to be" means we are to remain in a condition of holiness. In fact, the rest of the verse states, "you also be holy in all your conduct." This means in every aspect of my life I am to be holy. Conducting my life that is not in line with anything of this world.

As I stated at the beginning of this study, the world tempts us in many ways to be unfaithful to the Lord's calling in our lives. We must be very clear in knowing the call of God in our lives and remaining faithful to that call.