15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. 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,
We need to make Jesus the boss in our lives. He needs to be the ultimate authority. All decisions need to be held up to His standard. That is what it means to set apart Christ as Lord. But did you notice where this action takes place? It takes place in the heart, in our inner being, the place where we make decisions. If our hearts recognize the authority of Jesus, then our actions will follow. If we really have the question settled about who is in charge, then we will give up our deluded notions that we can control things. To put it another way, when we have our IM running, we need to have Jesus at the top of our ‘friends’ list. He should be the first one we communicate with and the one who gets the most ‘face time’ with us. When we recognize that Jesus is in charge, people ought to be able to see a difference in our lives and be approaching us with questions. There is such a difference about someone who has Jesus in charge. People will be seeing the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives. And when their lives hit rough patches, which all lives do at some point, they will see our stability and hope. It is at those times that we need to be ready to talk openly and honestly about Jesus. We must be ready to do that, not only with the content of the Gospel message, but also the attitude of the Gospel message. Gentleness and respect are the hallmarks of Jesus’ life. Even when He could have lashed out, He didn’t. We need to present the message with this spirit of gentleness. We can’t force the Gospel on anyone; they must accept it freely. God respects them enough to give them the choice, so we must do the same. We have a hope that fulfills the longing of the human heart. Offer that hope to others.
The Arnold Journey 