“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15
Are you afraid of sharing your faith? Sharing our faith effectively is all about having the right perspective on the role we play.
Often we fail to stand up for our faith because we are afraid of not having all the answers. Author Alex McLellan believes we put too much pressure on ourselves at the cost of the Gospel.
“Peter says that our responsibility is to give the reason for the hope that we have, we’re not responsible to give the reason for the hope someone else has.”
We don’t have to worry about knowing everything there is to know about our faith. We simply have to be able to explain why we have hope.
“We don’t have to swallow a Bible dictionary, we don’t have to memorize a concordance to share our faith. Peter says we need to be ready, thinking about why we believe what we believe. Those are the reasons we need to be ready to share with other people.”
If someone reacts negatively when we share our faith, it doesn’t mean that we have failed.
“Even if the other person spits in our face and turns around and walks away, the Bible says that we haven’t failed, we’ve been faithful.”
According to Alex, many Christians carry around the burden of a false sense of responsibility when it comes to the faith of others.
“Sharing our faith is not making a sales call; it’s not checking a box. We share the reason for the hope that we have gently and respectfully and the outcome is out of our hands. The outcome is between that person and God.”
If we share our faith in a kind and loving way, we have fulfilled our calling and God will count us faithful.
“Let the Holy Spirit do something marvelous and wonderful, driving those words home to resonate with that person.”
