Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!

1 Peter 3:15-17

Dear God, what a nice passage from Peter this is. And it seems pretty basic. Worship Christ as Lord. Be ready to explain your love for Him. Live as a good example.

I heard a woman this week make a passing reference to her broken marriage. It kind of made me wonder what happened along the way. I wonder this a lot about broken marriages. At one time, presumably, the couple was in “like,” in “infatuation,” and in “love.” But time went on. Offenses happened. Bitterness grew. Self pity took over. Then hopelessness. Now it’s just a peaceful (or maybe not so peaceful) coexistence. How many of those marriages could be saved by a little more mutual worship of Christ and living as a good example? In fact, I need to go ahead and order my favorite Christian marriage book today for the woman from this week. It really takes the idea of marriage back to how the individual is doing living for you.

Father, help me to worship you like I should, live as a good example that glorifies you, and then be ready to point others to you at any given time. You give me hope. You give me peace. You give me life. Thank you.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen