“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.”
My faith started in kindergarten, or so I have been told. The story I’ve heard is that when I was little I was a troublemaker. I attended a Christian kindergarten and my teacher thought that if I accepted Jesus into my heart, it might help me be less naughty. My mother says that one day when she came to pick me up from school that she was informed that I had asked Jesus into my heart. I remember this only through the stories of others. I never heard about whether or not my behavior in kindergarten improved.
Somewhere along my faith journey, I heard that you only needed to declare Jesus as your savior and Lord once. Once you welcomed God into your life you were set. But somehow that lesson didn’t fully take. I remember asking Jesus into my heart a few more times throughout the years. In summer camp, while walking home from church one Sunday, and when praying with someone else who wanted to be saved.
I understand that we are healed, reconciled and saved, by the grace of God. I understand that the grace of God is greater than any mishap, mistake, or misunderstanding we may have. Yet, I think there is great value in circling back again and again to the simple affirmation, “Jesus is Lord.”
When are frustrated by how the day has unfolded, come back to the prayer, “Jesus is Lord.”
When the test results are inconclusive and more tests are needed, “Jesus is Lord.”
When we are worried about our loved ones, “Jesus is Lord.”
When we feel on top of the world, “Jesus is Lord.”
When all is still and calm, “Jesus is Lord.”
When we assert that Jesus is Lord we are saying that our anxieties are not our Lord, our ego is not our Lord, our circumstances are not our Lord. We follow Christ, for Christ alone knows the way to resurrection and to life.
In whatever circumstance you find yourself in with your family, your work, your finances, your friendships, let your heart repeat and rest in the simple affirmation, “Jesus is Lord.”