If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (NLT)
I remember as a kid playing hide-n-seek with my older brother and some of the kids from our neighborhood. I was pretty good at it because I was very skinny. I could shimmy into a ton of places that nobody would think to look. Of course, my biggest issue is when the seeker got close to me, but couldn’t see me, I would start to laugh. Trying to keep the giggles in was the hardest part of hide-n-seek. Often times I would get caught because they would hear me laughing to myself. But, other times, I was able to contain my chuckling and stay silent. These are the times that I won the game with no issue.
In our life, sometimes we play hide-n-seek with our faith in Jesus. Some of the time, we are able to talk about it with others, while other times we hold it in, lest we be found out. Sometimes we like to follow the directions of God, while other times we pretend we don’t know who He is so we have free license to go along with the crowd.
Here’s the issue: Our faith is supposed to be the priority in our life. It should never be hidden. As believers in Jesus, our faith is our identity. We are sons and daughters of the Most-High King. We should take pride in that fact.
But, often times we behave like we’re ashamed of being a Christian. We often think, when I’m among other Christians, I’ll live my faith. When I’m not, then He doesn’t really matter. Unfortunately, this reveals that our faith is opportunistic – we like it when it’s convenient for our needs. Yet, God calls us to live our faith regardless of the situation.
Jesus is either your Lord, Savior, and Best Friend all the time, or He isn’t truly all of those things. It’s not situational, depending on what audience you find yourself. This is why Paul writes, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, today, and every day, be open about your faith. Introduce your Best Friend, Jesus, to others. Openly declare that Jesus is Lord. In other words, it’s OK to name-drop the name of Jesus. Be proud of your faith. Don’t play hide-n-seek with it.
ChadReisig.org 