‘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.’

(1 Peter 3:15-16 NLT).

Sharing your faith does not mean being pushy or preachy. If someone offered you any kind of information – be it lifesaving or not! – in a manner that was pushy or preachy, would you listen? Probably not.

As followers of Jesus, we are to be ready to explain our hope in Christ when opportunities arise but how we do that is so important. Our very lives are to invite curiosity about our faith, but we aren’t to force our faith upon anyone. It is and will always be their choice to believe in Jesus or not.

I understand how frustrating this can be for those of us who may be surrounded in the workplace by individuals who do not know Jesus. You may witness behaviour or overhear conversations that irritate you and make you want to intervene, or even see sad situations play out before you and want to bring Jesus into the situation to help and to heal.

But we are to do these things in a way that does not invite judgment or muddy our conscience.

If you gently and respectfully share your hope in Jesus with a fellow coworker and they accept your message – praise God! You have witnessed to your colleague with great success and the Kingdom of Heaven rejoices!

But if you share your faith and it is rejected, you may suffer persecution that looks like people speaking out against you. Scripture practically tells us that we will endure this!

But if you can dare to maintain your humility, gentleness and respect for that individual or individuals, you will likely cause them to be ashamed of their slander because of the way you live well.

Ask the Lord to grant you boldness to share your faith when the opportunity arises. Ask Him to help you communicate with gentleness and respect why you believe in Jesus and carry such passionate hope in your heart for Him.

Then, perhaps, identify a coworker you can intentionally build a relationship with, opening the door for deeper conversations about faith.