It is in my make up to be prepared. I always want to be prepared for what may come. While I was never a Boy Scout, I do have a similar approach to their theme of “Be Prepared.” Living through the last 18 months has really given us a fresh perspective of being prepared. If nothing else, it will be a long time before we will run out of toilet paper at our house. This theme of being prepared got me thinking about a verse that is very familiar to me. That verse is found in I Peter 3:15, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Are you prepared to share the reason for your hope in Jesus Christ?

Let me give you a real example of being prepared to speak. My wife and I had a conversation with a young man a couple of weeks ago regarding our faith in Jesus. He asked us this question, “How do you know when God has spoken to you?” Now I want you to look at this question from a non-believer’s point of view. If you answer a non-believer’s question with what we know is true, “I hear from God by reading His Word the Bible,” they are feeling you are not really answering their question and are just pulling out the answers that you learned in Sunday School. They want a real-life example so that they can understand your relationship with God. Do you have an example in your mind where you know that God has spoken to you? Can you explain this to a non-believer? I guess what I am asking is, are you prepared?

Here is one story that I shared with this young man. I was in my first few years of being a full-time Youth Pastor when my dad began giving me some advice. He said, “Son, if you are thinking about continuing in Youth Ministry you really should get some seminary training.” Well, my wife and I had five children. I was busy as a Youth Pastor and with life in general. Besides, at that time there were not any distance Master of Divinity programs that were fully accredited. This meant either I pulled my family up from our life in Alaska for three years or I took classes that did not lead to a degree. I was not interested in either of those options. Well, not long afterwards the Senior Pastor at Anchorage Grace asked me if I had ever thought of going to seminary? I explained to him my reasons for not considering it. He listened and said, “well I do think it would be good for you to get some more training.” Even those two aligned influences in my life did not get me to look seriously into seminary. And yes, I did have my reasons!

A short time later I met a friend who told me about a fully accredited Master of Divinity program that was designed for distance learning. It required two weeks on campus in January and two weeks on campus in July. To top it off, it was the seminary attached to the university where I received my Bachelors’ degree. Now my attention was caught. Because I am not the brightest in the world, God had one more message to send to me on this subject. I was at a Youth Workers Convention and unbeknownst to me I sat in a session taught by one of the professors from this seminary program. It just so happened that the recruiter from that seminary was also at the convention. Yes, I did talk to him, and as it turned out he was a friend of my dad! I don’t believe in coincidences. But I do believe that God pursues us when He has something for us to do. It took about five minutes for the recruiter to show me that this program was designed for students exactly like me. All these encounters took place so I could be sure that God really wanted me to attend seminary and get my Masters. Getting my master’s didn’t give me a promotion. I didn’t need it to continue in my job as Youth Pastor. It didn’t get me a pay raise either. I did, however, learn a great deal of how to be effective in ministry. And it taught me how to stay the course through challenging times.

One conversation that I think you need to also know is that my wife came to me about 3½ years into this five-year program and said, “Babe I don’t know if this is worth it? The stress it is putting on our family, you are always tired, and we don’t get to see you like we should. I don’t think it is worth the cost.” That was hard to hear and even harder to answer. I told her I needed to pray about it before I answered her. Pray I did, and as I waited on the Lord, He reminded me of all of the conversations and indicators He had given me initially to convince me that He wanted me in this program. I needed to hear that! And as a matter of fact, because I was so convinced that God had clearly shown me that He wanted me in this seminary program it kept me in the program even when things were really hard. So, I told this to my Sweetheart. I shared, “There are a few decisions in my life that I am convinced that God has clearly spoken to me. This is one of them. And so even though I agree with you that I am not sure the difficulty is worth it, I am convinced that this is what God wants me to do. And so, I am sorry, but I am going to stay the course!” Well, her reply to my answer almost knocked me over. She said, “Thanks! That really helps. You need to finish!”

Now if you are a skeptic and looking for an excuse not to believe, really any excuse will do! I have no idea what this young man thought about my example of how God spoke to me. And really, that is not for me to worry about. Remember our verse in I Peter 3:15? We are told at the beginning to “honor Christ the Lord as holy.” This means that regardless of the results, we are to be obedient to what Jesus is asking us to do. That is important in me being obedient to going to seminary. But it also is obedient in me being ready to share the reason for the hope I have in Jesus! It also means that a young man becoming a true believer in Jesus is not dependent on me! Nothing I say can convince someone to respond to God. But God does allow me to be a tool that He uses to proclaim the truth about who He is. He is the Holy One! We are saved through Jesus Christ and Him alone!

When some people want to hear from God, they ask for a sign, a fleece if you will in the way Gideon asked in Judges 6. My thought on this is that we want to be very careful in how we ask God to show us a sign. If our heart is more of a “I want God to show me something really extraordinary” I think we have the potential issue of putting God to the test. Jesus was very clear in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 that we are not to put the Lord our God to the test. However, if our heart is really to understand God’s direction for us and we truly with humility seek Him to show us what He would have us do, I am confident that in His timing He will show us His path forward. We need to approach God with humility and awe for the Sovereign One He is! And He does desire us to walk in His ways. Through His Word the Bible and through several Godly people that we trust, we can get amazing counsel that will help us to understand what God has for us. But there are times that He shows us His will in ways that we can fully recognize and will give us the wherewithal to complete the task He has laid out for us.

So let me conclude by asking you again. If you were asked by a non-believer how you know that God has spoken to you, what would you answer? Are you prepared to give a reason for the hope you have within you? What I really am asking is, are you ready?!