New? February 15 Devotional
February 15, 2025
1 PETER 4:7 | 7 The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.
There are different ways to be serious. One way is emotional. Seriousness in this sense means to restrain emotions like joy, excitement, and laughter. It means to be grim.
The second sense of “serious” is less about the darker emotions and more about the will. When we “take something seriously” it means we try to understand it, if we are speaking of a problem, or that we give our best and most focused efforts if we are talking about a task. It means to treat something or someone with the gravity and importance that they deserve. Peter uses it in this second way “be serious and discipline yourselves.” Our prayers should express our deepest desires, most important concerns, strongest values, and highest hopes. They should correspond to our faith and God’s purposes. We should live in a way that shows we’re serious about those things. Interestingly being serious in this sense increases our enjoyment of life!
Are you serious in sense two?
Gracious God,
Give me the joy and excitement of high hopes and strong spiritual values and genuine faith in your purposes and my serious role in their realization.
Amen.
