“I’d had enough. . . . I was definitely planning on throwing myself into the [River] Don,” recalled Steve from Rotherham. Desperate, he prayed to God for help. A few days later he met Ali, a church worker, who invited him to a group to discuss questions of faith and life. Steve attended, and changed radically: “Jesus has made a big difference to my life. . . . I know God is helping me. I can feel his presence every day. . . . To be clean off [drugs], it’s all to do with God.”
Steve believed the promises of God, confessing that Jesus is His Son, who died for him. He was saved, as the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). With Paul, Steve would affirm that the freeing message of Jesus was now “in [his] mouth and in [his] heart” (v. 8). Changed by the love of God, his hope was real.
We may have been believers in Jesus for decades, or we may be currently wondering about this Man, the Son of God. Wherever we are in our journey of faith, we can trust that if we believe, God will free us from our sins and make things right between Him and us.
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
Where are you in terms of believing in God and where do you want to be? How does the presence of Jesus make a difference in your life?
Saving Jesus, thank You for giving all of Yourself that I might live free, clean and renewed. Help me to show Your love to those in need.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Romans 10:5–15, Paul cites multiple references from the Law (the first five books of Scripture). But in verses 11 and 13, he quotes from Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32. When he cites Isaiah, he quotes the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Scriptures. This is why the quotations don’t match precisely: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame” (Romans 10:11 ) and “the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic” (Isaiah 28:16). In quoting Joel, Paul uses the Old Testament term Yahweh (Lord) and applies it to Jesus. Paul is clearly teaching his readers that Christ is Lord.
Tim Gustafson
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