If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9
Many of you are familiar with the classic children’s story, “The Little Engine That Could.” It’s a tale about a little train engine who, through the power of belief (“I think I can. I think I can.”), pulls an unbelievable load up a mountainside. It has endured for over a century because so many of us connect with it; we want to be that engine.
Yet, if we’re honest, many of us actually relate better to those greater, bigger engines that are unable to pull the load up the hill. They convince themselves that the load is too big and that they can’t do it. Similarly, we face our own personal challenges with such disbelief. We approach seemingly impossible tasks, such as trying to lose weight or getting out of debt by looking at the size of the problem and becoming disheartened. “I’ll never lose all this weight.” “I’ll never pay that off.”
So, what’s that little engine’s secret? Why is he able to pull off a miracle?
As I see it, he has two things going for him. First, he thinks he can. It’s as simple as that. He truly believes in his heart that, regardless of the size of the load, he can actually get it up the hill. Second, he speaks his belief out loud. As strange as it sounds, there is a direct connection from the heart to the mouth.
As believers, we must stop looking at the size of our problems and start looking at the size of our God. He has promised to take care of us, and if we set our eyes upon Him, we will come to believe what He has promised. Once we believe He can, then we must say that we know He can. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is how we make it up the mountainside: by putting our trust in the One who knows we can.