Listen to the following two verses from the Psalms:
Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
Psalm 57:9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
Those saved by God walk around with open mouths continually offering up praise to God for his salvation. They are always found confessing the faith. They speak about it among those who fear God, those already part of the kingdom. They also speak about among the peoples, those not yet part of the kingdom. Understand that confessing the Creed in the liturgy and telling a neighbor about the love of God in Jesus are truly similar actions although they seem much different when doing them. The Christian confesses the faith regardless of who is in front of them.
And they make a habit of it. They confess the faith regularly by speaking the creeds of the Church, telling the stories recorded in the Scriptures, and by speaking of his goodness to them personally in regular ways. They make time for confessing the faith together with the people of God in their home, congregation, and other gatherings of God’s people. They also make regular time for singing God’s praises among those outside of the Church. The latter takes more thought since the most natural ways of witnessing often cannot be done in a scheduled way with other believers. Time must simply be set aside to purposefully confess the faith before those they already know that are not yet in the Church.
God’s people cannot help themselves. The know of nothing more worthy of the use of their tongues. They not only know about God goodness but are the constant recipients of that goodness. Unless they shut up their own mouths, the praises of God come out of their mouths regardless of who is around them.
Confessing the faith is just what the people of God do. They open their mouth and the praise of God flows out. It is a habit of those made holy by Jesus.
This post is part of a series called Seven Excellent Habits.
