Give an Answer

I saw an old friend today. A man of God and a mentor. We were talking about trust and what it means to trust the Lord. He said people often ask him, “How do I know I’m trusting God?” His response: “You know you trust Him when you have peace. If you don’t have peace, you are not trusting Him.”

Trusting God does powerful things for us. It enables us to be patient. It gives us hope. It steadies us in the storm. When we have a patient hope, we are energized and mobilized to press in and press on. Steadfastness, then, is becoming in us, and others will be attracted to it. By its evidence we are given opportunities to give an answer for the hope that we have. (1 Peter 3:15)

There is a darkness in this present age that is robbing people of hope. There is much despair. But we, the people of God, His children of light, have a hope that anchors us. We have confidence in what the future holds, because we know the God who holds it. We have peace within when all around is chaos and uncertainty.

Of course it is beyond logic and beyond understanding. This is the point. It is beyond us, which is precisely why we are secure. It isn’t up to us to make sense of the world. It is only up to us to believe the One who created it and came to redeem it. Knowing that it is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 15:19, Paul says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (NIV) Why does he say this? Because if we don’t live this life with the full conviction that there is everlasting life on the other side, then we have not taken God at His word: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV)

Let us, therefore, be willing to be poured out. To give everything we have into His service, believing utterly that “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 NIV) When we are not afraid to die, the people around us will want to know why. And then we get to give them the good news of Jesus, who He is, and what He came to do.

Trust Lord with all your heart. Cling to eternal hope. Love with abandon. What do you have to lose? Not one thing, except that which was never meant to enter heaven anyway.

Until next week, beloved, trust His faithfulness and be ready at any moment to give an answer for the hope you have.