For the scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 10:11

 

The Apostle Paul quotes the Prophet Isaiah and speaks to a fundamental concern that people have had forever. We get so caught up in trying to always be right that we don’t do what is most needful in order to live right. We are focused on the risk of disappointment, on becoming disenchanted, and on our image with others; so, we don’t want to put all of our trust and the totality of our reliance on God. Yet, He does respond to everything that we need, and He does it in a manner that is both constant and consistent. Everyone and everything else that I have ever relied on has had its moments of failure or disappointment. Christ has never come up short for me.

 

When these writers speak about believing, they are not talking about just recognizing the existence of God, and they are not even considering that this means the mere acceptance of Jesus as Savior; although, that is a part of what Paul is saying. They are telling us that the path to a day by day life that is lived in confident victory over all of the aspects of slavery that evil tries to bind us into is paved with our own acceptance of Christ as Lord of our lives. When Jesus is the true center of existence, there is no longer any shame. There is only a continual path that leads deeper and further into His glory. The rub for me and for most people is in setting and maintaining Christ in that position as lord and master of all of my life. Yet there is no one and nothing that I can surrender all to who will love and care for me perfectly and totally.

 

Christ is the sort of loving master who frees us to be and to do what we have been given gifts, talents, and interests in. He desires for each of us to utilize our individuality in engaging our world by serving the needs of others. Believing means doing, it means turning over control, and it means acceptance of the outcome regardless of our own anticipation. When we believe, we know that God will always take us where He needs for us to go, and He will always lead us to places where we will be able to show someone else the way to victory over life through Christ. When we trust God and allow Him to direct, lead, and empower our daily lives, there is absolutely no way that we will be left alone wondering why we made that choice. To quote the voices of ancient wisdom, “We will not be put to shame.”