Ephesians 4:1-6 (NLT)
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.
1 Peter 3:15 (NLT)
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.
A while back, John pounded into us the importance of planting the Scripture into our hearts, even if we had to write it down and tape it up all over the house and workplace. During my various stages as a believer, I’ve done just that. My apartment resembled my writing notebooks, with scribbled scraps of paper covering everything. One anonymous quote I cut out and attached to the backside of my front door read, “Hope is more than just a feeling, it’s a call to action, it's what you are willing to sacrifice for, as much as that power lies in you.”
The “one hope” Paul alludes to revolves around Jesus, his salvation of us, and our future home with him in eternity. Furthermore, we are to share this hope with others. Whenever the opportunity arises. This begs the question, “Do we?” Are we prepared to share the hope we have in Jesus? Are we willing to share our hope with others, so that our hope may be their hope? Are we, as John (the Pastor, not the Baptist) asked, comfortable sharing this?
You, like me, would say, “Of course I share the hope I have in Jesus.” But give it some brutally honest thought. Between the conversations about the weather, football, hunting, shopping, diets, work, and television programs, the hope of Jesus can get suffocated. We get side-tracked. Jesus gets lost among the hustle and bustle. Or rather, we lose grip of him. In addition to posting notes around our house, we should post notes on our hearts. Notes that shout, “My hope is you, Jesus. Allow me opportunities to share your hope, my hope!”
A last question to ponder, from John (the Pastor, not the Baptist):
Is everything we do about him?
