by Lyndal Walker
Youth for Christ International Prayer Director

Do you know what you believe and why you believe it?

In this time of uncertainty, people are looking for hope and we as believers in Jesus have it in bucketloads! Yet, are we able to articulate clearly and logically why we have this hope?

Hope : expectation or confidence; faith; joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always 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

Other translations use the word ‘defence’ for ‘give an answer’. The meaning of this is using our mouths to give a reasoned statement or argument. The apostle Paul was amazing at reasoning with the people he reached out to.

Reason : discuss, argue, persuade; dialogue through questions and answers.

If you study the book of Acts, nearly every chapter from chapter 17 shows how Paul reasoned with his listeners in regards to the Kingdom of God, righteousness, self-control, the resurrection of Christ, faith in Christ and the coming judgment. He reasoned a lot using the Old Testament scriptures as his audience was often Jewish but when he talked to people of other backgrounds (e.g. the Athenians in Acts 17), he was able to reason with them from the knowledge he had of their poets and philosophers (Acts 17:17-34).

I want to challenge you to write down a logical argument for the reason for the hope that we have. Some areas for investigation could be:

• Why do I believe Jesus was who He said He was (God’s Son, the Messiah)?
• Why do I believe in the resurrection?
• Why do I believe I need saving and what do I need saving from?
• How do I know the words of the Bible are true?

Once you feel like you can clearly and simply articulate the reasons for the hope that you have go and practice it on a friend and see how they respond and what questions they have.

You may like to start with the sentence:

"The reason I have so much hope is…."  or maybe  "There are several reasons for the hope that I have within me. These include…"

But remember to share with gentleness and respect.