“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;”
I Peter 3:15 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.3.15.NKJV
Live Prepared
Pause and think of the people who, at a moment’s notice, have to be ready for anything. Maybe your list includes first responders, the military, athletes, teachers, parents, pilots, surgeons, or pastors.
But does your list include you?
As followers of Jesus, we are called to…
“…Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
1 Peter 3:15 NIV
We can’t expect people to observe what Jesus has commanded us unless we are also observing His commands ourselves.
Do we want people to learn about God’s love? Then we need to show God’s love to people. Do we want people to learn about Jesus’ compassion? Then we need to be compassionate. Do we want people to give generously? Then we need to be good stewards of our money. Do we want people to study God’s Word? Then we need to study it for ourselves.
When you give Jesus control over your life, you allow His love, joy, and hope to transform you. As this happens, your life becomes an act of worship that reveals His hope within you.
When you live like Jesus, people are drawn to Jesus in you.
As you worship Jesus with your life, you will be able to honestly say that Christ in you is your hope and glory—and people will believe it because they will see the evidence.
They might not like who you are or agree with what you believe, but they won’t be able to find a logical reason to hate you when your life is centered around loving people the way Jesus loved you.
So as you go about each day, aim to live with gentleness and respect toward everyone—and let Jesus’ joy, love, and hope permeate your heart, mind, and relationships.
Share your faith: When you live like Jesus, people are drawn to Jesus in you.
Share your faith: You never know when someone will start asking questions about God. Always be ready to share your faith—with gentleness, respect, and love.
Prayer: Jesus, make me more like You. Please get rid of any behaviors or thought patterns that don’t reflect Your character or heart for people. Make me bold, brave, and courageous—but keep me humble, kind, and gentle. Let the way I live reflect Your hope and love. And when the opportunity arises, help me to share my faith with genuine joy. Amen.
Note after sharing the devotional: I felt led to do a cross-reference between Scriptures, first because it pertains to the focus verse from this devotional, but also because the cross-reference itself is a current passage interest of mine. In short, in spite of my plethora of frustrations with all parts of life on this earth, I do still pray to “see many good days.” When I was younger, I simply assumed that that would be the case, on the basis of my grandparents’ lifespans.
[My two grandfathers both got to see their 90th birthdays (one lived to be 92), and even my grandmothers both lived past age 65, with one of them dying at 79 only after a lifetime of gut problems, anger, and bitterness. (I pray she forgave everything before she passed, as she was the only grandparent who loved God and loved Scripture.) The other one died at 67 of breast cancer, but only because she avoided doing anything about it until it was far too late.]
That, and my parents are both still alive and well as they go through their late-60s. Because of it, and because of my resultant assumption that I too would live as long as they, it made it far easier for me to take life for granted and therefore complain about things. But now that I’ve repeatedly felt my own fragility due to this health condition, it has left me realizing that my life could end far differently than how I had long assumed.
As such, I began learning the below passage. I don’t yet have it all memorized, but the first part is sticking out to me. Following is a synopsis of the chapter of 1 Peter 3 (with the original reference from Psalm 34 that Peter references):
“For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””
I Peter 3:10-12 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.3.10-12.NKJV
Context:
1 Peter 3:1-6: To the wives: respect your husbands and submit to them.
1 Peter 3:7-9: To the husbands: honor your wives with respect to them as the weaker vessel.
Then:
“Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
Psalms 34:12-16 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.34.12-16.NKJV
Afterward:
“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.”
I Peter 3:13-17 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/1pe.3.13-17.NKJV
Oftentimes, our best witness is in how we demonstrate handling suffering, especially to others who aren’t saved. I’m still in the early stages of learning this. But one thing among many for which I count myself grateful: despite having been in some kind of therapy for 14 years and counting, nine of which were intensive-focused, God has used the last six months to give me major gains that even those nine years of intensive therapy couldn’t give me or get me to, realizations and freedoms that had eluded me for my whole life up until now. I’m finding that there is a sense that formal therapy could potentially be unnecessary, given two things: 1.) the person has received Jesus Christ and knows their Bible well, and 2.) if they are able to connect the importance of self-examination, understanding, and humility with putting the fruits of these things into practice. Now I’m now about to come onto this platform and talk about how humble I perceive myself to be, because to do so would instead reveal some kind of narcissism or entitlement within me that shouldn’t be there. Who am I to say that by nature I’m not those two terrible things? But by Christ’s nature, if I am indeed in Him, I have been forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness, and through Him and only Him I am wise and humble, because Jesus Himself by nature is those things. So when Peter talks about “always be[ing] ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” that assumes that one already has Christ’s humility and meekness in them.
And if so, then aside from a wrinkle in God’s plan that we don’t see coming, there is also therefore no reason that one shouldn’t live to see many, many days if they keep their tongues from evil, and their lips from speaking deceit, departing from evil, doing good, seeking peace and pursuing it.
May it be so, according to His Word, with His divine help regarding my part in the matter.