Visible Hope
Leah: Do you make hope visible to others? Hi, I’m Leah with Follower Of One. Today, Mike’s going to show us how we can make hope visible to those around us and why it’s so important to do so.
Is Your Hope in Jesus Visible
Mike: Hi, I’m Mike Henry with Follower Of One. Is your hope in Jesus visible? How can we make our hope in Jesus visible? What exactly does it mean to hope in Jesus anyway? We all live according to our beliefs. Do you live like you fully believe in Jesus and the Bible? Can you think of places where your belief isn’t that strong? I can. Every one of us can improve. Our life exposes our reality. If Jesus is central to my reality, then my actions make my belief in him visible. Do you do anything that can’t be understood by others unless they know you follow Jesus? Where did I get this? Well, I get this from 1 Peter 3:15, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
Sharing Your Faith
No one will ask me to give an account for my hope unless they see my hope. In a secular work environment, how can I make someone see my hope? Do I need to tell them? Maybe. When I ask people if they share their faith, many people respond by saying that they’re not allowed to speak about faith. I never define what I mean when I say the word share, but many people hear me say talk. Some think sharing their faith means making a gospel presentation. Others think sharing your faith means offering to pray for someone or inviting them to church. But when we follow Jesus, we live like we believe in him and he makes our hope visible to others. Not to everyone, but to some. In most cases, we share our faith by how we live. Do you consider others more important than yourself?
I Confess
Is your appreciation of them visible? What about how you speak about others or how you do your work? Do others see something different in your actions? That’s something different is our hope in Jesus. I confess times when I’ve trusted myself much more than Jesus. I developed bad workplace habits that were difficult to break, but I pray we live in such a way that everyone understands what we believe. I want to obey God such that he makes my life silently speak. Share your faith without a word today. Ask God to make your hope visible and ask him to help you trust him while you do it. God will call you into some difficult territory. Often our faith is most visible when we experience difficulty, but faith that comes through difficulty is also pure and genuine.
Silent Sincerity
Let’s serve others and ask questions and listen, honor confidences, avoid gossip and criticism, and subordinate our interest to those of others. Over time curious friends will trust you because you do this and you present a silent sincerity. Once they trust you, someone will ask, “Why are you doing this?” We’ll talk more about how to answer that question in the next video. Thank you for intentionally following Jesus every day and thank you for asking him to change your workday. Let’s follow Jesus in such a way that he becomes visible to the people around us.
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