If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:9-10

   Suppose a young bride, just returned from eloping, was told by her new husband, “Honey, I love you, but I don’t want anyone to know about us. So, I might act like I don’t know you when we’re out in public. Once a week I’ll take you out on a date for about an hour, but our real relationship will be a secret just between you and me. Oh, and honey, I still want you to cook and clean.” Not much of a marriage, right? A man who is ashamed to be seen in public with the woman to whom he committed his life — that’s a big problem. You might question his love for her.

    So it is with our relationship with Jesus. We want all the benefits of a blessed life, but would just as soon keep the whole thing on the down-low. After all, we don’t want anyone to think we’ve become one of those crazy religious fanatics. We fear that going public with our faith will bring changes we aren’t willing to accept. While it’s true that faith in Christ is a very personal thing, it is not meant to be a private thing.

    We can look to God’s Word for assurance of our salvation, but we can also assure ourselves by using our own words to say out loud to another person, “I need to tell you something. Jesus is my Lord. I’m choosing to live for Him.” A verbal confession of our faith in Christ is an important response to our gift of salvation.

  Lord, there have been times when I’ve shied away from conversations with other people about You. Forgive me. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say. I don’t want to hide the fact that I love you and have accepted You into my life.