Always Be Ready to Explain

If someone came up to me and asked me why I believe, this is where I’d start: “If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it, but do this in a gentle and respectful way.” I Peter 3:15b-16a NLT

There are countless reasons why I believe in Christ as my Savior and Lord, but I’d like to highlight three main ones.

He is Worthy

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” Revelation 4:11 NLT

I came to know Christ as a young girl. In fact, I was so young I don’t even remember how old I was, but if I were to guess, I was three. My mother is a believer, and she asked my sister and me if we wanted to accept the Lord into our hearts as Savior a long time ago. I did not have an easy upbringing, but I am thankful for her guidance here.

After that, coming to God with my hurts and pains came naturally to me. I’d often find myself in the Psalms for comfort as a bullied child, and drew strength from David’s accounts, especially his request to God on smiting others, and my prayers would often mimic wanting the Lord to show up for me this way personally.

Although I never witnessed the Lord avenging me like the Old Testament suggests he’s capable of, I did realize I was a worm in comparison to this all-powerful, all-mighty God, and I came to learn throughout my formative years that He alone is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise.

I Was in a Pit of Despair, and He Rescued Me.

“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.” Psalm 40:2 NLT

Fast forward to nineteen, pregnant for the third time, and ready for a change, I cried out to God again. This time, utterly defeated and quite sarcastically, I threw my fist towards heaven and charged, “If there is any truth to this grace thing, I want it.” The Lord met me in that terrible place and began to reveal to me just how far I’d run from the warmth and safety of his loving arms.

Year after year, I struggled with deep-pitted pain and loss, raising three children alone for nearly a decade. Through many bitter tears and a venomous strike, only rebellion can provide, I continued. Day after day, week after week, I sought the Lord and brought him my pain. Little by little, he set me free from debilitating addictions and sin that held me captive for many years.

Eventually, I realized I had been rescued. The Lord had brought me into a nice, spacious land, but only recently, and after nearly 30 years of obeying the Lord, has he revealed this to me. I am thankful today for two things. One, that he revealed to me at nineteen that I was in a pit, and two, that he showed me the way out and placed my feet on solid ground.

He Remains Beside Me Always.

“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT

More recently, I’ve had plenty of more questions for God. Questions like, “If you really loved me, why did you allow my twenty-five-year-old son to die?,” or “Why is my fourteen-year-old daughter so sick that I had to abruptly leave my job as a minister and ELA teacher of nearly sixty 5th-grade students last week?” Why God, Why?, I lament, and I candidly ask.

These types of blows assuredly sting, especially since I’ve spent many years equating my walk with Christ as something to be earned, or a type of performance I share with him. I did not intend to pick up this religious idea, but if you are a part of a church body for just about any amount of time, I am afraid this is a very real ideology, and as a young woman, I fell victim.

Since 2022, however, the Lord has been revealing something new. God is always with me. God loves me, as if I were his only daughter, and it is his good pleasure to keep me safe, wrap me in his love, and surround me with his precious presence. He also remains in front of me, and I am simply to walk in the way He has already pre-determined I do.

He has shown me that I am safe. That He is the Good Shepherd. That I am in his kingdom-ever-after pen, and that it’s OK to explore pastures. I am safe. This has been my favorite breakthrough in Christ to date because I have always been terrified to make a wrong move. I did not feel like a part of God’s family. I felt like a slave, a hired hand, who must perform perfectly, or I am in danger of losing my salvation. This type of thinking is so heavy and debilitating.

Today, I am convinced that God, more than anything, not only wants us to receive the precious gift of salvation, but also wants us to learn how to walk with Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit so that we firmly understand He is with us, and that He will never, ever leave us.

I now boldly declare that it’s not about me at all. It’s about Jesus’s faithfulness to keep us, his unfathomable willingness to remain beside us, and his longing that every single one of us would come to know Him as Lord, Savior, and King. For this revelation, I can not thank God enough. It has been slow coming, but it is sure, and now I just want to proclaim from the rooftops what a mighty God we serve!

This is it, folks. This is why I believe. He is worthy, He is my deliverer, and He will never leave me. I pray that if you’ve never made Jesus your Lord and Savior, you would come to him, as you are, and allow him to be yours so that you may be freed from this world and all of her pain and suffering eventually, and spend eternity with him.

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