Clear-Minded

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF PETER

CLEAR MINDED

1 Peter 4:7-11

7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

NIV

There is a whole lot of short, straight to the point, sharp statements here that we need to take one at a time. First of all the end of all things is near. Well, just how near are they if Peter wrote this some two thousand years ago and the end has yet to happen. What is considered near? The Greek word does mean to approach or to make near, so it is sure Peter meant what he said. The end of everything is coming soon, it is approaching and therefore we need to be clear minded and self-controlled so we can pray. The opposite of this would be to have a confused mind, and in the Greek, there is a sense of abstaining from wine, or not being drunk, or not in control of our faculties so then we can hear the Spirit helping us to direct our prayers in accordance with the will of God. However, wine is not the only thing that causes a confused mind. Listening to the voices of strangers, yes, even preachers we do not know, can cause confusion in our spiritual thinking or matters of the heart. We only have to remember the past fads, such as Oral Robert's seed-faith teaching. He taught that if whatever we need, we should give or seed.  If we needed love, give love, if we needed money, give money, and of course give it to him, which was his central theme. Then there was the name and claim it, groups, using Mark 11:22-24 as their bases for their teaching. Of course, they always left off the qualifier, verse 25, which includes the part about when we stand praying, if we hold anything against someone, forgive them. Nasty little truth there. In order to receive anything we ask for, we cannot hold on to any ill feelings toward anyone. Peter makes that very clear in saying that above all, we must love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. It is not up to us to judge or to hold a grudge, or to keep a record of someone’s wrongs, even when it is against us. We are to always, all the time, all day long, forever, forgive and that means we will never bring it up to them ever again. Now, we may not forget what happened, our memory is like that, but those are the times we have to forgive again and again, which might well mean what Jesus said about forgiving seven times seventy. If we love deeply then we will always forgive and that is clear-minded thinking and being in control of ourselves. When we allow ourselves to get upset and angry at someone for what they are doing or have done against us in any way, then we are not clear-minded and we are allowing them to control our thinking, our attitude, and our emotions and thus we are not in control of ourselves and then our prayers will be ineffective, or could we even say, useless. This may well be a reason the body of Christ is torn apart. If we are not clear-minded, and self-controlled and we do not love each other deeply, all those ill-feelings, judgmental and unforgiving attitudes are a sign of a sick church that is in the throes of death. We cannot afford to allow our prayers to be hindered by confused thinking, and lack of control over our mind, our attitudes, our heart, and thus our tongue. Let us love deeply and pray accordingly, with a clear and controlled mind.