Always Be Ready to Share Your Faith

Imagine for a moment that you are an Olympic athlete. You’ve trained your entire life for a race that will be over in mere minutes.

You place your feet on the starting blocks. You wait for the starting sound as sweat begins to bead on your face. You look up, hear the shot and take off.

Before you know it, you are crossing the finish line — and you are in first place. Your mind is flooded with emotions. You’re not sure how to really process what just happened.

You make your way to the podium to receive your medal and see an interviewer heading your way. They put a mic up to your face and, through the noises of the cheering crowd, they ask you the following question:

“What does this moment mean to you?”

You pause, gather your thoughts and then speak.

Now, back to reality.

If this was really you in the above scenario, what would you say? Many professional athletes are used to having a platform and influencing others with it. But for Olympic athletes, their big moment may arrive only once.

And what they say in that moment can define them for the rest of their lives. Even if they become public figures after the games, they will continue to represent their sport and what’s most important to them.

Similarly, all Christ-followers will have opportunities in life to share our faith, even if the platform isn’t as big as the Olympics. The only question is, are we ready?

Prepare for Your Moment

The Bible encourages us to tell our story, to love others and to point them to Jesus. We may not feel qualified to do this, but God wants to use us anyway. Every believer has a role to play in the grand story of the Gospel.

“… 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, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

Unlike an Olympic event, sharing our faith isn’t a one-time event. We are called to continuously share our story, talk about our faith and reflect the light of Christ.

It’s possible to do this on the fly and the Holy Spirit can use what we say, even if we’re unprepared. But if we are intentional about knowing why we believe what we believe, it displays confidence and maximizes our influence on whoever is listening.

Train for Your Moment

We don’t have to wait for the “perfect” opportunity to share our story. If we have a humble spirit, teachable heart and are making every effort to know God’s Word, sharing our faith will come naturally.

That being said, there are a few ways we can prepare for opportunities:

• Memorize Scripture: The more verses we commit to memory, the easier it is to recall them for a variety of situations and questions. (Colossians 3:16)
• Gain Knowledge: We can’t share our story effectively without a proper foundation. If we thirst for God’s Word and study it, we will be training properly. (2 Timothy 3:16)
• Spend Daily Time in Prayer: Consider starting or ending each day in prayer. Prayer nourishes our souls in a way that nothing else can, filling us up so that Jesus’ love overflows from us. (John 6:35)
• Avoid Compromises: We should seek the Holy Spirit and give him permission to convict us about areas getting between us and God. The more we seek God, the easier it will be to live a compromise-free life. (Psalm 119:9, 11)
• Get Out There!: There’s a time for training and growing spiritually and then there’s a time to take that first step. Trusting God as we take steps of faith will give us the confidence, direction and wisdom we need to share the hope of Jesus with everyone we meet. (Matthew 28:19)

We should always be ready to share the reason for our faith. Stay close to Jesus and there’s no limit to what we can do for God’s kingdom.