Conviction of Heart

by Ronnie Hewitt

“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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)

The earliest confession of the NT church was not “Jesus is Savior,” but “Jesus is Lord” (cf. Ac 8:16; 19:5; 1Cor 12:3). Jesus is specifically called Savior 16 times in the NT, but He is called Lord more than 150 times. “Lord” (Gk. kyrios) means having power, dominion, authority and the right to master. Therefore, when NT Christians called Jesus “Lord,” this was not just an outward profession, but an inward sincere attitude of heart by which they made Christ and His Word Lord over their life.

John Eldredge in his book “Restoration Year” says, “The purpose of this thing called the Christian life is that your heart might be restored and set free. But restoring the heart is no easy project. God doesn’t just throw a switch and poof it’s done. He sends His Counselor to walk with you. That tells you it’s going to be a process.”

If you think about all the things, we give our hearts to and allow in our lives, you can easily see the damage that has been done to our hearts. But as you give more and more of your heart back to God, you will be able to live more in the fullness of God’s promises. Jesus must be Lord of our heart in order to be Lord of our life.