Grace Thoughts
GraceLife Thoughts – Suffering for the Faith
“And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. ‘And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.’ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” 1 Peter 3:13-17
If you are reading this today and are under intense persecution for the hope of Christ in you, you know what Peter is talking about. However, the majority of you reading this today are not under intense persecution. You and I live, at least for now, under little if any real persecution for our faith in Christ. So, does this mean we don’t need to give anyone an answer until we are under intense persecution? No, we should not wait. We should take advantage of the freedom we have in our world to share reasonable answers for everyone who has questions about Jesus Christ.
Take a piece of paper and make three columns:
Person Question Answer
Write the name of all the people you have contact with on any regular basis. Then, write the questions they have asked about the hope that is in you. Then, pray about the answer(s) you will share with them. This is an important part of your ministry.
It is helpful to see the names of the people God has brought into your life. It may be parents, grandparents, children, friends, neighbors, people at work or school, or people you talk with regularly during the week (e.g. postal workers, store clerks, service people). Having the names of people in your lives written on a piece of paper helps from their getting lost in the busy-ness of our lives.
It is also helpful to write their questions next to their names because it reminds us of their spiritual need. How we think about people every day is how we’ll treat them every day. If we think about their spiritual needs, we’ll address their spiritual needs every time we talk with them. Remember that every person is a “spiritual” being. They are more than physical beings with physical needs only. They are also spiritual with spiritual needs. They have questions, we have answers.
If you see someone with a physical need, what do you do? You help them. If you see someone with a spiritual need, what do you do? You help them. People need answers to spiritual questions even as they need answers to physical questions.
Something to keep in mind is that we are not the only people with answers to spiritual questions. If we don’t have good answers to the spiritual questions of people in our lives, someone else may answer their questions with wrong answers. We need to be ready with the right answer to every question that every person asks every day. Sound like a big task? It is.
What should you do if you want to learn how to defend yourself against bullies or armed attackers? Find a good teacher who can train you in self defense. What should you do if you want to learn how to give an answer for the hope that is in you? Find a good teacher who can train you in faith defense.
Just like trained martial arts instructors, trained apologists stand ready to help you through their books, articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and speaking. Find some good teachers and get some good answers. Be ready!
“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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Published by gracelifethoughts
Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
