FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “There Was an Old Lady Who Believed in Jesus”

Supplies: Bible

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Do you remember the children’s song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly?”  I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.  I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.  I taught preschool for a few years, and my four- and five-year olds always loved that song.  If you have young children…or if you’re young at heart…take a few minutes and have a fun family sing-along.  (In case you need a reminder, here’s the progression: fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow, horse.)  

READ

Read Romans 10:1-17 together.

THINK

The song selection may seem weird, but whenever I read these verses in Romans, something triggers a memory from kindergarten of watching a flannel graph version of this bizarre lady ingesting the entire barnyard.  I think it’s the pattern of connecting one thing to another, only instead of tracking animals through her digestive track, Paul tracks the steps through salvation.  Let me elaborate…

First off, I love these verses!  How great is it to read that everyone—EVERYONE—who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!  In this passage, we learn the key.  Paul shares the not-so-secret steps to eternal life.  If we want to know the joy of forgiveness, the power of grace, we just need to do two things.  1) We need to believe, to fully and completely accept the truth of what Jesus accomplished on the cross with His resurrection.  And 2), we need to tell other people that Jesus is our Lord.  That’s it.  That’s amazing!  And like we already said, it’s available to every single person on the planet.

So what’s the problem then?  If it really is that simple, and if everybody qualifies, why isn’t the whole world heaven-bound?  Specifically, why aren’t some of our friends and family members?  This is where Paul’s steps come in.  He helps us see some of the missing links, the short-circuited points that may be keeping some people from connecting with Jesus.  You see, everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.  But to call on the Lord, you have to believe in Jesus.  And to believe in Jesus, you have to hear about Him.  And to hear about Him, you have to have someone tell you about Him.  And to have someone tell you about Him, that someone has to be sent out to share.  You could almost sing the song…”They sent the person to preach the good news; she preached the good news so you could hear; you heard about Jesus so you could believe; you believed in Jesus so you could call on the Lord; you called on the Lord so you could be saved. Oh, praise His name, now you can be saved!  You’ll never die.”

It’s true that salvation requires a person believe in their own heart and confess with their own mouth.  That step can only be accomplished through the call of the Holy Spirit and the obedience and surrender of the person being called.  However, Paul reminds us that we have roles in this process.  We are links in the chain to salvation.  The love of Jesus is rarely experienced in a vacuum.  He uses us—our voice, our lives, our stories and experiences—to “preach” the good news to the people around us.  Each day He sends us out into our neighborhoods, our schools, our work places, our community…even our own homes.  Are we going to be the links that connect others to Jesus?  If we don’t, perhaps they’ll die…

APPLY

Moms and dads, now is a perfect time to talk to your kids about their relationship with Jesus.  You are the perfect person to “preach” the good news to them and walk them through the steps of believing and confessing Jesus as their Savior!  They may not be ready, but if they are, remember that there are no magic words.  All they need to do is talk with Jesus about where they’re at.  If your child does invite Jesus to be his or her Savior, would you please share with our staff?  We’d really like to celebrate with you!

It could be everyone in your house has already taken that awesome step of faith. Yay!  Now, start asking God who he’s sending you out to connect with.  Are there a few people you’re already thinking of, people you want to see get connected with Jesus?  Begin praying that the Holy Spirit will help you “preach” the love of Jesus in ways that these people will hear and embrace.  Ask for strength, courage, and wisdom to know when to begin conversations that will help people believer.  Then cover these people in prayer that they once they hear, they will believe and call on His name.  Glory to God!

PRAY

Heavenly Father, through your unending love you have made a way for us to be saved.  We don’t deserve it and yet there it is—available to anyone who calls on your name.  Thank you, Lord!  Help us be the voices that others can hear, so that they can also believe and call on your name. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

REPLY

Did you and your family enjoy this devotional blog?  We'd love to know about it!  Our hope is to continue providing this weekly opportunity for families to do a devotion together.  If your family did this devotion, please shoot us an email, text or just post a comment to this blog.