“For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’.” Romans 10:13
Having accepted the Lord at a young age, my grandmother had been a Godly woman all of her life, but for my granddaddy that wasn’t the case. He was a “good man,” and a hard-working provider for his family, but he had a rough side too. He was known to have quite a temper along with a few other bad habits and tendencies as well, but all that changed one hot summer day.
He was pulling a wagon down a path when a freak accident took place. The tractor he was driving somehow flipped over, pinning my grandad under the steering wheel to the bed of the wagon. My father told me the story many times of how the crushing weight of that tractor placed so much pressure and weight upon my granddaddy that droplets of blood began to pop out of the pours of his skin.
In that moment, thinking he would surely die, my grandad called out to the Lord with the words, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” At that moment, my father and his brothers, who had been walking alongside the tractor, mustered the supernatural strength to pull the tractor and all of its deadly weight off of my grandad. Lewis Jones would never be the same after that day. No, he certainly wouldn’t live perfectly after that, but Romans 10:13 had certainly worked for my grandfather that faithful day, and he and everyone in the family knew that was the day the Lord saved him.
The word “saved” in this verse, and throughout the New Testament, is the Greek word “Sozo” and literally means, to save, heal, deliver, preserve, protect, make prosperous and make whole. Not only did my grandfather need to his soul saved, but he also needed to be rescued and saved from immediate death, and he received both.
Paul tells us that this “Salvation” is really, really close and never far away. Romans 10 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
Today, no matter what area of life you may need it, just simply believe with your heart and confess with your mouth and you can see this same “Sozo” show up for you. It’s always close at hand when you need it.