Anyone Who Asks

Christ-followers live an inexplicable life. Our belief in God makes us look peculiar to other people, as 1 Peter 2:9 tells us. This noticeable difference will cause people to pay attention to us and ask, why are you so different?

When we choose to serve our coworkers, bosses, and friends, others will see and they will be curious to figure out our motives. Again, in 1 Peter 3:15, Peter tells us to prepare an answer for our hope to anyone who asks. This means that people will ask, and we should wait for them to do so.

However, we can grow impatient as we wait for others to notice and ask us about Jesus. It might feel like we are being passive in our faith, even though Jesus has given us a commission to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). But everything we do, even when we love and serve others, is for God’s benefit. We don’t get too concerned about anyone noticing how we live for Jesus because Jesus is our boss and he sees our good works.

Opportunities to talk about Jesus will arise; we should jump at them without being too eager. Sometimes it’s hard to gauge when it’s okay to shift a conversation to spiritual matters or to continue to meet people where they are. We don’t want to turn others off from learning about Jesus — we want our belief to be appealing so that people will want to know more.

One way to balance this is to be mindful of the other person. We give away our time, resources, and energy when we appreciate and care about where our coworkers may be in their walk with Jesus. If the opportunity presents itself, we can ask permission to interject a spiritual perspective and allow the person we’re talking with the freedom to say no. Appreciation and care for others may mean honoring their desire to not hear about God in that moment. It still doesn't mean they won’t ever want to know more.

Because we trust God, we know that God will prompt some to ask to know more. And when they do, we share our prepared answer with anyone who asks.