284 - Prepare Your Mind for Action
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Show Notes:
I was reading through 1 Peter the other morning and this verse just stuck out at me. 1 Peter 1:13: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Today’s episode is just me sharing a little bit of what I feel like the Lord has been teaching me lately, specifically about this verse and the importance of our minds.
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Alright, two quick things. I have been getting voice messages from you guys and it has been so fun. If you go to speakpipe.com/workandplay, you can literally leave me an audio message, like a voice text, and I get it, and I listen to it, and it's so fun. I am trying to come up with a really fun way this fall to maybe do a FAQ episode where I include some of your voice memos. Listen, I am all ears, so send me a message with any question that you have or any podcast ideas that you have. I would just love to hear from you. It's such a fun way to… I guess just connect with you who are listening and make me feel like, oh my gosh, there are real people listening to this podcast. It's so fun. Okay, that's the first thing. Speakpipe.com/workandplay.
Second thing. I have been working on a really fun, helpful resource for you. If you go to nancyray.com/reset, you are going to get either on the wait list or you're going to get my new resource. I will tell you all about that more soon. But it's basically all about if you just need like a life reset. If you want to take a good hard look at your habits, your rhythms. If you're tired of life happening to you, and you want to be a little more proactive, go to nancyray.com/reset. You'll either get on the waitlist or my thing will be finished. I can't guarantee it because I don't know what the next few weeks are gonna look like. Currently have two sick kids at home while I'm recording this, but I'm gonna work really hard to have it ready for you by the time this episode launches. Either way, I'll get it into your hands soon and I'm really excited about what's to come.
Okay, lastly, you know, you know, you know how much I love the Dwell Bible app. I use it daily. It is a staple in my life. I'm just saying, if you have been listening to this podcast for a while and you still haven't gotten Dwell, you should just try it. You can do a free trial, but to me, it is so worth the investment in my spiritual life. You can press play on Scripture while you are doing literally anything. Folding laundry, driving the kids to school, packing their lunches. This fall, I just love the idea of taking a walk outside in the crisp cool air listening to the Bible or the Dwell daily devotional. God's word can meet you in the middle of real life and it's read to you in authentic voices by real people. You can choose the background music. It feels just seamless in your everyday life. I found myself listening to the Bible more than I ever have; more than I ever expected. It has helped me stay so rooted in God's Word. Even on the fullest days, like today is so full, but I have my Bible study meeting tonight. I plan to listen to 2nd Peter all the way through today, a couple of times before my study. So even when I don't have a moment to sit down and read, you can listen. So you can have a discount if you go to dwellbible.com/workandplay. You can save 25% on a one year subscription or 50% on a lifetime subscription with your link. It's also just not too soon to start planning for Christmas. So ask someone for the lifetime subscription. Just do it. 50% off. You won't regret it. It’s so good. The link is in the show notes. That's dwellbible.com/workandplay.
Okay, let's get into this Bible verse. When I was reading it the other morning, two things hit me. Okay, first of all, I'm sitting down, having my coffee and I'm like, “Lord, speak to me today.” I have so many to-do's. I am ready. It was like one of those energy days. Like I'm pumped. I'm ready. I want to hear from you, Lord. I want to make my agenda and tackle it. But then I also, before I tackle it, I want to bring it before you. May it be underneath the Kingdom agenda, you know, but I'm ready. I'm ready for new things. I just felt this wave of energy over me.
First Peter 1:13 is what popped out of the page for me. It just said, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action.” I was like, “Yes, I am there. Prepare my mind for action. Lord, my mind is ready for action. You see me, you know me.” I am ready to roll with this whole new system I've made, with this to-do list this fall. I'm feeling good. Winnie is older, still not sleeping through the night, but hey, we've got like a little bit more of a system down. I'm not feeling, you know, as tired and I just feel the wind in my sails a little bit more this school year, everything like that. “Prepare your minds for action”, I was like “Yes Lord, okay I am ready. My mind is ready for action.”
Then it said “Be sober-minded and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So you have this one phrase, “Prepare your mind for action” followed up immediately by this other phrase, “Be sober-minded.” Now, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I love to do things. I am an achiever. I love a good to-do list, and I love crushing it. I love that, which is a very humbling thing as a mother of five children because the interruptions are bananas. Like, it's very rare that I set out and I do everything on my list. But because I am an achiever and I love to do things and I really feel so pumped up by having a project that I can tackle and seeing it through to completion, I love that. This phrase, “Be sober-minded” is what I needed to hear. I think I wanted to hear “Prepare your mind for action.” Like, yes, Lord, yes, prepare my mind for action. I needed to hear “Be sober-minded and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
I'm going to break that down for you a little bit more, but I kind of started thinking like, what does sober-minded mean? I think for me personally, in the moment, it was, hey, let's be realistic. Let's take a step back for just a second and be realistic about what you're preparing your mind for action for. This can be as simple as Nancy, you create ten things to do in a day and really you should only be creating two. It could be that simple. It also can be broader. Like my plans that I have, my goals and dreams I have for the rest of this year or next year or the year after that. Will was joking with me, I think it was just last night in the kitchen. We were laughing about that phrase that's like “Shoot for the moon and if you miss you'll always land among the stars” and he looked at me he was like “Nancy's always shooting for the moon.” I said, “You know it baby! I'm always shooting for the moon!” Then I laughed and I was like “and I'm always landing among the stars because I never actually reach the moon.” I never actually reach the thing I set out for because my downfall in being such an achiever and wanting to do so much is that I plan and aim so high all the time that I miss all the time. I'm not sober-minded. I'm not like humble. I'm not realistic when I'm looking at my time and the ability to do the things that I want to do.
So that can create a problem, right? I can be living a perpetual life of frustration if that is my life and I have to just laugh about it a little because I realize that this is like a weakness of mine. Like I am shooting for the moon all the time and I'm landing among the stars. I'm kind of always missing the mark over here. But yeah, I think this Bible verse has stayed with me the last few weeks because I have just been holding these two phrases in my mind and heart. “Prepare your minds for action.” Like don't not plan anything. Don't not do anything. Don't not take the time to pray and dream with the Lord and strategize and get ready to do what He wants of you right now where he has you. And “Be sober-minded.” Both prepare your mind for action and be sober-minded.
Let's talk about that phrase because I took it at first, like, you know, be sober-minded, Nancy. Don't shoot so high, like be realistic. But I started looking into what that actually means and this is what I found. The phrase calls for clarity of thought and self-control, avoiding worldly distractions and temptations. It's about maintaining a clear perspective and being alert to spiritual realities. So being sober-minded isn't just like, hey, Nancy, don't plan so much. It's having mental clarity, which that's part of it, right? That's part of it. It's having self control. It's staying focused. It's having sound judgment. It's making wise decisions. It's resisting negative influences. It's being vigilant and aware of where you are in your life right now, what season you are in, where we are in the world right now, what we are called to as believers. It says it's being alert to spiritual dangers and resisting temptation. It means being watchful and aware of the enemy's schemes.
Also, cultivating a sober mind involves renewing one's mind with God's word and His truth. So it's casting down wrong thoughts or bad influences or distractions, which, hello, they easily suck away our time and attention. But it's replacing them with God's thoughts, with God's truth, with Kingdom mindset. It's also connected to emotional stability, which I thought was fascinating. That's achieved when we are living by the fruit of the Spirit. Like being patient and joyful and gentle. These are things that actually come out in our emotions and that comes from walking in step with the Holy Spirit, living grounded in scripture.
So being sober-minded isn't just me saying “Nancy, don't shoot for the moon all the time.” It's take on this wisdom that God has for you. Take on the mental clarity so that I can lay out a plan and actually achieve it. So that I can set up habits and rhythms in my life that will re-center me on the Lord again and again where I have the self-discipline to listen to Scripture, to read scripture, to study scripture in community, to stay grounded in Him. That is being sober-minded, which is a much more robust look at the meaning of that, which I love.
So preparing your mind for action. That's encouraging us to actively engage our minds for what God has for us now, including preparing ourselves for the challenges that lay ahead of us and preparing ourselves for whatever assignment God has for us right now and being sober-minded. But let's not forget the last part of this verse. “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So while we're preparing our minds for action and while we're being sober-minded, we are to set our hope fully on the grace of Jesus and the revelation of Jesus Christ. My hope oftentimes is set in what I accomplished that day, what I do, am I on track with things? But my hope should be just focused on doing life with the Lord. That is my hope. The revelation of Jesus Christ, the grace that He has given me and that he has for me even today. That is where I should be fully, fully setting my hope.
So this is my encouragement for you. Yes, prepare your mind for action and be sober-minded with a lot of mental clarity and wisdom and set your hope fully on the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So that's really it. That's all I have for today's podcast episode. I just wanted to share something that the Lord has been kind of working on me and teaching me about, which is my mind and how important it is to bring my mind to Him.
My sister and I have been Marco Poloing each other. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, so we can't see each other as much as we'd like, but she was laughing and she was like, “You know, so much of life is in the mind. So much of our success is in one thing or another in our life. It all takes place in the mind.” She was like, “It reminds me of that quote from Father of the Bride when Franck says, (I'm not going to do this good), when Franck says, “It's all in the mind.” It just makes me laugh. I like growled when I said it. “It's all in the mind.” His accent is so great. You know what I'm talking about, okay? So now my sister and I will just text each other and be like, “It's all in the mind” and it's our reminder to each other that truly life… it is so important for us to stop and assess our minds. It really is all in the mind and Scripture calls us to get our minds ready for action and be sober-minded and set our hope fully on Jesus.
Listen, I'm just going to say this. I'm going to call myself out and say, I know this was super repetitive. I know this episode, I was very redundant. I said this verse a million different ways, twenty different times, and I'm not mad about it. If you can walk away from this podcast episode and be encouraged and remember to prepare your mind for action and be sober-minded and set your hope on Jesus, that's all I wanted for you today. So I just pray that over you today. I pray that the Lord would allow you to stop and think about your mind and how you are preparing your mind for action and also how you can be more sober-minded and how you can focus your hope on Jesus today. That is my prayer for you today. I'm just thankful that you're here listening to this podcast episode. It's a different kind of podcast episode today, but I hope it was encouraging for you.
Thanks for listening to episode 284 of Work & Play with Nancy Ray. Everything I've mentioned today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/284. You can find me at nancyray.com or follow me at @nancyray on Instagram.
I'm going to close with one of my favorite Scriptures about the mind, which is different than the 1 Peter scripture. This one is Isaiah 26:3. It says,
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.”
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
