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Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13–16, ESV

As followers of Christ, we are not meant to be like everyone else. That was the problem that God’s chosen, Israel, faced. God set them apart, which simply means that they were holy, and they continued to try to be like their neighbors. In Christ, we have been cleaved into the promise given by God to the children of Israel and have also been set apart. Christ didn’t die on the Cross for us to live like everyone else, but to be freed to live for our Lord. We are not meant to be like everyone else, but are called to live out a promise that is meant to transform us and take us out of the sinful patterns that lead us away from God. The Church is supposed to be different, and our worship is not for our entertainment, but to bring glory to God. Our lives have been purchased by the blood of Christ. He is sovereign over us, and our lives are to reflect that reality. In living our lives as Christ’s, we are freed from the fear that the world tries to impose and can freely walk in His peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.