Are You Ready?

KLOVE's scripture the other day was:

"Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." ~1 Peter 3:15

I couldn't help but think - Am I ready?

Am I ready to explain my Christian hope? What is Christian hope? Do I even have "Christian hope"?

So I did what I do best - I looked it up.

I went to Bible Gateway and searched for "christian hope" and came up with NOTHING. Nothing under the scripture search. Nothing under either topical index searches. Nothing.

Surely there IS a definition for "Christian Hope".

On the site http://www.desiringgod.org/, John Piper wrote about Christian hope. (You can find the full article here.) His answer to "What is so important about Christian hope?" is below:

If our future is not secured and satisfied by God then we are going to be excessively anxious. This results either in paralyzing fear or in self-managed, greedy control. We end up thinking about ourselves, our future, our problems and our potential, and that keeps us from loving.
In other words, hope is the birthplace of Christian self-sacrificing love. That's because we just let God take care of us and aren't preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves. We say, "Lord, I just want to be there for other people tomorrow, because you're going to be there for me."
If we don't have the hope that Christ is for us then we will be engaged in self-preservation and self-enhancement. But if we let ourselves be taken care of by God for the future—whether five minutes or five centuries from now—then we can be free to love others. Then God's glory will shine more clearly, because that's how he becomes visible.
When God satisfies us so deeply that we're free to love other people then he becomes more manifest. And that's what we want above all.

That's good stuff. But what is Christian hope?? John Piper explained later -

"Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass."

But the original question was "are you ready to explain your Christan hope?"

I know that Christ died for me. And he died for you. And he also died for that crazy weed-smoking man down the street from my offices that refuses to get a job and just lives off of my tax money. And he loves me even though I'm seriously messed up not perfect. And he rose again FOR ME (and you, and that high man too- can't leave y'all out in my selfishness).

But truth be told, I'm not so sure I am ready to explain my Christian hope. But why?? Am I just shy? Or is it my good old insecurities? Do I even have Christian hope? Or do I have worldly hope? Is it because I'm not willing to relinquish control and live by hope in Christ? But then, what has Christ promised me?

Then I think of others, not myself. There are 4 couples that I have been praying to have a baby while I was still begging praying for Hammer. Two of the couples are currently pregnant (if you are wondering - one through IVF and one after laparoscopy to clean up cysts. If you are struggling with infertility, you know exactly what physical issues I'm referring to.) The other two couples I pray for daily. And I mean daily. Sometimes I pray for them hourly. I just know that they are going to have a baby. I even know what I'm going to purchase one of the couples when she announces they are being blessed with a baby. I can feel it in my bones, heart, soul that they are going to have a baby in their arms. So I pray that it's now and not later. The weird thing is, I'm not sure they are trying right now. At one point they were taking a break because it was so emotional. But I'm telling you, they are going to have a baby. I tell you all of this to ask - is that my hope and prayer? Or is it theirs?

"Christian hope is confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it would come to pass."

Again - is it my Christian hope? (I just know they are going to have a baby, so I'm praying God makes good on his promise now.) Or is it my worldly hope? (I "hope" they have a baby soon.)

I choose to think that God promised them a baby and is waiting for the right time. So I'm being the "squeaky wheel" by praying like crazy and hoping He "oils" that squeaky wheel and blesses them with a little one. But is it my Christian hope??

I don't know. And I don't know if I'm ready to explain "my Christian hope" to someone. but here is was I do know. I can be honest and say -

I researched this thing called "Christian hope" on a earthly computer. And I'm not sure I even figured out what "Christian hope" is. But I know that he will bless these couples with a baby. And I won't go hungry cause He promised I wouldn't. And He will never leave me of forsake me. And that's all I can say for sure. I'm still trying to figure everything else out. In the mean time, I'm trying my hardest to relinquish control of my life and give it all to Him. It's hard, but the rewards are so worth it.

So yea, I guess I could "wing it" if asked to explain my "Christian hope". But I really don't want to "wing it". I wanna "nail it".... It just all goes back to my daily walk. I gotta eat and be fed. I gotta sit at Jesus' table and eat some of His word. The more meals I keep missing, the skinnier my faith will become. I wanna be a big, fat, pudgy soul filled with Him. I wanna throw up words of encouragement because I ate so much. I wanna silently fart and fill a room with God's beautiful aroma.

And I pray I'm ready when the time comes to explain my Christian hope.

"Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass."