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^“7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” NIV

‘’Stay wide-awake in prayer’’ ‘The Message’.

The government’s current message to ‘Stay Alert’ is so important. It should not be taken lightly. As Christians we should want to be good citizens and follow these guidelines as closely as we can. But we also see another level to the ‘Stay Alert’ message. We hear a call in it which was probably not intended: i.e. to ‘Stay Alert’ spiritually.

‘’Stay wide-awake in prayer.’’

I read an article by a pastor this week. As I understood it, he was saying that in all the discussions about the mechanics of returning to any kind of ‘normal’ church life, we must not lose sight of the underlying spiritual dynamics. He said if we don’t come out of this deeply changed something is wrong. We’ve wasted an opportunity.

If, for anyone of us, mediocrity/lukewarmness had become the norm before the pandemic, it mustn’t be any more. As Andy Lancaster encouraged us in a recent interview, this is a time to ‘press into God.’

Staying wide-awake in prayer entails at least 2 elements. These are indicated in one version as being ‘’clear minded and self-controlled’’.

It seems to me that clear-mindedness involves knowing what to pray, and self-control getting on and doing it.

Isn’t it just the easiest thing in the world to know that you should pray, and maybe even have some idea of what to pray, and still not do it?

So ‘Stay Alert’ to the enemy’s subterfuges; to his subtle schemes that would rob you of prayer (and rob the world of the potential impact of your prayers); ‘Stay Alert’ to all his attempts to steal the treasure of fellowship with God from your heart. ‘Stay Alert’ to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing right now in your circumstances.

As someone said, ‘Pray until you pray!’

PRAYER: Lord help us to keep in step with your Spirit. Please strengthen me to pray until I pray.

 ‘For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him, for they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey…prayer is warfare to the last breath.’ (A 4^th century desert father who devoted his life to solitary prayer and meditation).

^“5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” NIV

I think today’s verses become clearer in ‘The Message’ translation. Let’s read from verse 3:  ^‘’You’ve already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it’s time to be done with it for good. Of course, your old friends don’t understand why you don’t join in with the old gang anymore. But you don’t have to give an account to them. They’re the ones who will be called on the carpet—and before God himself. Listen to the Message. It was preached to those believers who are now dead, and yet even though they died (just as all people must), they will still get in on the life that God has given in Jesus.’’

There is both good news and bad news in today’s passage.

There is bad news for unbelievers in verse 5. Those who persecute the church and appear to get away with it now will not do so forever. We worship a Just God who will, in His time, set all things to rights.

But the good news for believers is that even though they die, it will not be the end of any of them. As someone observed: ‘Death is the ultimate statistic: one out of one dies.’ No-one can beat it or cheat it; no-one can avoid it. But as a Christian you know you will come through it into a richer, fuller life with God.

The great American evangelist, D.L. Moody spoke of a day when people would read in the newspapers (he was famous) that he was dead. ‘Don’t believe a word of it,’ he said. ‘Then I will be more alive than I have ever been.’ This is the good news here in verse 6.

David Pawson said, ‘The church is the only society on earth that doesn’t lose a single member to death. They just transfer to another branch!’

The Bible teaches that a day of separation is coming – a great divide. It isn’t just the persecutors of the church who need to fear that day, but all who reject Christ. However, for those who trust in Jesus, there is nothing to fear.

Bishop Thomas Ken wrote:

‘Teach me to live that I may dread,

The grave as little as my bed.’

PRAYER: ‘’…thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:57).

^“4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.” NIV

The philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, said, ‘Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians, therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!.’

He was, of course, speaking about a certain flavourless brand of traditional Christianity which he saw in his own day and culture. It is manifestly not the case that no one wants to kill Christians, and that no Christians are ever martyred. The persecution of believers is still a sad fact of life in many nations. Nevertheless, Kierkegaard’s words should provoke us to self-examination, because there is much unsalty salt here in the west.

The Christians to whom Peter was writing certainly knew about suffering for their faith. One way this can come is through social ostracism. Your non-Christian friends think it’s ‘’strange’’ that you’ve said ‘Enough’ to your previous lifestyle; that you no longer live as you did, nor want to Some may think you are strange.

I remember David Pawson saying something like this: when you become a Christian you make at least two discoveries. The first is that you’ve got a whole lot of new friends, and that’s good. The second is that you’ve got a whole lot of new enemies, and that’s not so good.

A new convert asked his pastor, ‘Now that I’m a Christian, how much of the world should I give up?’ The pastor’s reply was,’Don’t worry; the world will give you up!’

I believe it was Warren Wiersbe who told the story of a couple of girls who were known for their wild partying. After their conversion to Christ, they received an invitation to yet another party. They sent this reply: ‘We regret to say we cannot attend because we recently died.’

PRAYER: Although living your way, Lord Jesus, may mean that I am misunderstood, scorned, and left out, I want to always be true to you. But I need your help if I am to walk the same path you trod. Thank you that you do help all who look to you.

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body has finished with sin.”NIV

It’s interesting that an ‘’attitude’’ can be an armament – a part of our spiritual armoury.

In this context, Peter is writing about fortifying ourselves with a certain attitude towards suffering. Okay, we don’t like it; we don’t want it; we wouldn’t choose these trying circumstances, but we recognise they can have a purifying effect upon us. They can wean us more and more off the world, and press us ever more closely to the heart of God. It can have such a positive outcome. This result is not inevitable, but it is possible. This is the essence of what Peter is saying here: not that you stop sinning altogether if you suffer, but that it can be a means of making you more holy. So we should ‘’arm’’ ourselves with an attitude towards it that recognises God can use it to make us more like Jesus; that realises He may have precious gifts for us in the midst of it.

Extending the broad principle that an attitude can be an armament, in what other ways do you need to ‘’arm’’ yourself?

One example for me is that I have learned to ‘’arm’’ myself with the attitude that I will set the alarm clock early, get out of bed, pray, read my Bible, do some exercise and listen to good Christian content, before I get into the other demands of the day. If I did not ‘’arm’’ myself with such an attitude, it probably wouldn’t happen.

I once heard a preacher who just kept repeating, ‘It’s a fight all the way, but fight on.’ Maybe many of us are feeling something of this at the moment. It’s a daily plod. It’s a fight to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. In the hymn ‘Jerusalem’, there is a line that says, ‘I will not cease from mental fight…’

So many key battles are fought and won in our minds. Let’s remember that attitudes can be armaments.

PRAYER: Lord, when I think about the darkest places you have taken me, I have met you there, and I believe you have done something in me that may not have happened any other way. Help me Lord to always have that mind in me which was also in Christ Jesus…

¹⁰ For,‘Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.”NIV

‘’He that keeps his mouth keeps his life…’’ Proverbs 13:3

‘Beware of leaving your tongue in gear when your mind is in neutral.’

I don’t know who said the above, but it’s a super quote. As Peter writes about ‘the good life’, he emphasises how important it is to rein in the tongue, and he indicates that this is possible. We know from James 3:1-12 (and from regrettable personal experience!) that it is oh so difficult to control our speech. But it’s not impossible for anyone who has Jesus living in them by the Holy Spirit. (Consider 1 Peter 2:23).

I am learning, over the long haul, that this must apply not only to the words I speak out loud, in conversation, with others, but also to what I quietly say to myself inside my own head. I can create scenarios in my mind that have no objective reality; I can tell myself lies about what is happening and believe them as if they were true. I doubt that I’m alone in this. We need to be careful about our self-talk (and we are always talking to ourselves).

To live ‘the good life’ we must walk in repentance (11). Positively, we are to pursue peace; negatively, we must turn from all evil. This includes the sins of speech.

PRAYER: ‘’Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.’’Psalm 141:3