“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God had raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”
(Romans 10:9-10).
Everything that comes from the heart goes out through the mouth. Then do the words that come out of your mouth demonstrate the quality of your heart? Exactly! Paul said that he believed with his heart unto righteousness and confessed with his mouth unto salvation. It all starts in the heart.
Verena was seven years old when she left the kitchen angrily, slamming the door. It struck her grandmother Nilda, but not very hard. It was a simple matter that did not cause any major consequence, but the family wanted to teach Verna that she had to ask for forgiveness. After a lot of adult insistence, the girl stood in front of the grandmother. She wanted to open het mouth to speak, but it was very difficult. Finally, she said: “This is very difficult.”
Let us think about it. What is “difficult”? Was it speaking? No! It was difficult to say something that did not come from the heart. In this case, it had to do with asking for forgiveness. The problem is always within us.
According to Solomon, the heart is the place from which “spring the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). In the Bible, the heart represents the totality of the inner life of the individual: the mind, the emotions, the intellect, and the will.
Man looks on the outside, but God can look and read the heart. Luke explained it in the same way; he said that “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
What is confessed with the mouth is what is believed and received in the heart.
Admitting guilt without believing it is both ineffective and difficult, as much for the one receiving it as for the one who is giving it, because “a profession of Christ witout this deep love is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery” (Steps for Christ, p. 44).
“There must be a power working from within, a new life from above,
before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ.
His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul,
and attract it to God, to holiness” (ibid, p. 18).
Mario, one very intelligent teacher, once said,
“Always start with the hardest thing because that is what is worth the effort.”
Therefor, even if it is very difficult…
we are going to start where we need to: our hearts!
God bless you, open your hearts to Him, He will work wonders….