7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
The idea of the nearness of the end times is found in both Pauline and Petrine letters. Both of them spoke of the nearness yet inconclusive of the precise time-frame period (2 Thessalonians 2:1-11; 2 Peter 3:3-16). They knew that it will happen but not very quickly as the believers of that Day thought it would occur. Certain events will precede before the coming of Christ. However, there is a caveat here: the Day of the Lord is not to be calculated with human-made calendar. It is in God’s own time table. So, it’s vain to calculate something which is not given unto men (Deut. 29:29).
What we are aware of is this: the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43-44), it will come like a lightning (Matthew 24:27) (the suddenness of the moment is clearly portrayed in the Bible). Therefore, what are we supposed to do? The next part of this verse answers that question: Be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Prayer is the key here. Remember the disciples (including Peter) on the Mount of Olives when Jesus was requesting them to pray. They were exhausted from sorrow (Luke 22: 45). Prayer is the antidote to temptation. Jesus spoke that clearly in Matthew 6:13, “And lead us not unto temptation,” God does not tempt us to sin but He does test us to see the genuineness of our faith (1 Peter 1:7). As John Piper writes, “What it teaches us to pray is that the temptation does not take us in. Don’t lead me into temptation. Deliver me from this evil that is set before me.” Temptation will always be there but we are seeking God’s help so that we are not led into it.
There are things in life that can bogged us down. It can gain heavily on us that we lose our sight of God. The alertness and the seriousness to the spiritual discipline may completely be blown out of sight. The worries, worldliness and the desires for material things could easily blind us from the truth of God’s promise of His return. Therefore, Peter exhorts the Christians to keep the “Day of the Lord” in sight so that they can be alert and sober to pray and not give up in their fight against sin.
Prayer: Lord, help us by your power to stand strong in the midst of a crooked and warped generation. We need your power to overcome our slothfulness and sinful hearts. In Jesus name, amen.
