Hope-Part 1

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." 1 Peter 3:15


A couple of weeks ago, our Sunday school teacher told the class that God had put it in her heart to try and prepare us for some difficulties that we as Christians in America may face in the future. She asked for us to give her some feedback, and I immediately (and foolishly) raised my hand to say that, there was some verse about giving a reason for our hope and that maybe that was something we could look into.

I do not mean to say that it was a foolish idea to explore and understand and be prepared with an explanation of hope in times of trouble. I just mean that I am guilty of knowing a part of a verse, never the reference, and only sometimes the context. So God, in His mercy, allowed the verse to come up later in the week during my homework time of a Beth Moore Bible study I am working on. I took note of the reference. Then, because I knew I would be writing a post about the verse, I looked into the text surrounding the verse.


This is what I found. First of all, I did not even realize that the first and the last part of the verse existed. I had only ever heard the middle part; Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. I have always assumed that this meant that as Christians, we are to always be ready to give our personal testimony of salvation to non-Christians. And that is true. But...

The book of 1 Peter was written by Peter as a letter of encouragement to believers who faced social and economic persecutions from the Romans, the Jews, and from their own families. Sound familiar? We, as Christians in America, may be facing some hard times. And the difficulties may come from many different sources. So, where is our hope? Let's look back at the very first part of this verse. But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. "But" in this verse follows a command to fear not. By setting apart Christ as Lord, we can do just that. Because, in setting apart Christ as Lord, we are taking our control (or lack of it), and our leaderships' control (or lack of it), out of the equation. GOD IS IN CONTROL! HE HAS A PLAN! HE MADE PROVISION FOR HIS PLAN THROUGH CHRIST JESUS! AND WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO LIVE OUT HIS PLAN BECAUSE OF THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Now the next part of the verse, Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have...caught my attention because of the absolutes, "always" and "everyone". I think that if we pay attention to those words, they speak for themselves. There are no exceptions!!!

Finally, the last part is, But do this with gentleness and respect. There are no conditions on when we are to be prepared, or who we are to share with. The only conditions here, are in how we deliver our message of hope. I find myself feeling awfully self-righteous at times, when in reality, I have done absolutely nothing to secure hope for myself. It all goes back to God-God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

I will not elaborate in this post, but God has most certainly placed peace and hope in my heart. As a matter of fact, I am sort of anxious to see what lies ahead. Has God given you peace about the upcoming election, the economy, the war? I'd love to hear from you!