Do you know why you have that hope in you?

Speaking out against the majority
Standing up for what seems wrong.
Being placed in the midst of those who hate you because you are out numbered, unfavored, reviled, and ridiculed.
The time is fast approaching and so very few will be standing.


The trials will be of the sort that those who are seemingly of fable, those of legend, and yet are very real, endured.
Will you stand?
The pressure to give in will be tremendous. You will seem wrong. You will seem crazy. You will seem to be against all that is good and right. How will you react?


This is something you need to think about. Or maybe you don't need to, maybe it's something you are of the opinion that you'll face when and if it happens to you, no planning needed.


Do you have an answer for your faith, for your hope?


******

1 Peter {3:13} And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?


We like to imgaine that none will harm those who are followers of good, right? We're sickened when we read of abuse against those only seeking to help others. It's an atrocity to us when the good are targeted for harm, when the innocent are stricken purposely. Who harms those who only do good? Who? We want to believe only sick, twisted people but that's not always true in the sense they are noticeably aberrant people. A shock comes to many when they find out some seemingly wonderful people are the very ones harming others. Regardless of who they are the fact remains there are those who do harm followers of good.


1 Peter {3:14} But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.


Suffering for righteousness sake.


The good that are harmed are suffering for righteousness sake aren't they? If those good people weren't so good maybe they wouldn't have suffered. If the good were inclined to give up their goodness so they wouldn't be harmed maybe things would go easier. No one wants to suffer and yet ... 'But and if...ye suffer for righteousness' sake...' it's better to suffer for righteousness than to give into evil, right? If we do suffer then we are told not to be 'afraid of their terror, neither be trouble'.


Afraid of their terror.


If we're not to be afraid of something that is ready to inflict terror upon us then what in the world are we to be afraid of?


It's normal to be afraid of someone or something that is terrorizing us, right? And yet we are told not to be afraid. In fact we're not only told *not* to be afraid we're told *not* to be troubled.


Righteousness stands on its own so to speak. Righteousness backs itself up. Being on the side of the righteous leaves no real cause for fear or worry. The unrighteous are those that will inflict terror and trouble upon the righteous. As long as the righteousness remains in us, that righteousness being Christ's Righteousness, then we truly have nothing to fear because nothing done to us can take that from us and the greatest loss comes if we lose our Righteousness which is Christ in us. We can't let fear strip us of that love of Christ's. We truly cannot allow ourselves to be afraid.


We are told to...


1 Peter {3:15} But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear


Sanctify the Lord God in our hearts.


God has to fill our hearts, God has to live in our hearts. God has to be the reason we do live, the reason for the life in us, the hope in us. Jesus has to be so real to us that we couldn't imagine living without the hope of God in us. The thought of living without the hope of God in us has to be what terrifies us, nothing else. That hope when it is alive and real in our hearts gives us the very life we live. We have to sanctify-- make holy -- the Lord God in our hearts! We have to...


1 Peter {3:15} ...be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear


Be ready always!!!! How long? Always. Does always include right this moment? Does it include tomorrow? What about a year or two from now? Yes, yes, yes, always means just that. We have to be ready at all times to give an answer to every man. How many men? How many people? Every man, every one, we have to be ready always to answer any one who asks why we have any hope in us and we have to answer humbly...meekly... with fear...with meekness and awe, not the fear in the sense we're scared to answer. In meekness and awe, humbly, quietly, reverently reveal why we have hope in our hearts. Why we can be abused physically, or mentally, maybe emotionally or possibly all three or any combination, why we can be harmed and yet still hope and not give up that hope in us. To give up that hope is to give up Jesus Himself.


People will want to beat that hope out of us. They'll want us to cry uncle. They'll want to hear us renounce the hope in us. But if the hope in our hearts is our very life we know that to renounce it means death and not from those that harm us but from the Eternal One.


We have to be ready always to give an answer to anyone who asks us why we have the hope in us that we do.


Do you know why you have that hope in you? Could you tell someone meekly, reverently why you have hope in your heart? What keeps you going, why aren't you succumbing to the abuse, even under the threat of death?


Could you?