a4: how do I know?
There are many reasons why a person feels separated from God. Look at the list below and choose the one that fits you best:
- I accepted the forgiveness of God in the past, but I have sinned so many times since then that I feel a long way from God now.
- I was very young and do not remember when I was forgiven of my sin or I think I did not understand enough about God when I prayed to receive Him.
- I have had some tough situations in life that have made me doubt there is a God.
- I am not sure I have ever accepted Jesus and been forgiven of my sin.
<- LOOKING BACK
When you accept Christ, He becomes the leader of your life. He forgives your sin (past, present, and future) and He guides you in your life decisions. That is how any relationship with God gets started. The difficult part about our perspective is that we see only now and past. God sees our past, present, and our future. When He loves and accepts someone in salvation, God knows already the sin they will commit in the future and He still loves them enough to forgive them.
Let’s read Romans 10:9-10:
… if you confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
THINK BACK, WHEN IN THE PAST DID YOU BEGIN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOUR SO THAT YOU WOULD BE SAVED? THINK ABOUT A TIME, YOUR AGE, OR PLACE
If you are not sure if you have ever accepted Christ as your Lord and Saviour in the past, let’s turn to a1 right now and walk through that part to understand more about what it looks like to start a relationship with God.
If you feel like there might have been a time in your past when you came to know Christ, but it seems like nothing has changed in your life, let’s look closer at how Jesus directs us.
Knowing Jesus is not like knowing a famous person you have never met. When you accept Jesus, He forgives your sin, puts His Holy Spirit in your life, and helps you know more about Him each year or your life. Each year you should be able to look back at the previous year and see how you know more about God now than you did a year ago.
Sometimes our spiritual growth in God is slow, so we think we are not growing at all. But, when you look at your growth over time, you may notice how God has been at work in your life.
THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU KNEW OF GOD WHEN YOU FIRST CAME TO KNOW HIM. DO YOU KNOW MORE OF GOD NOW THAN YOU DID IN THE PAST?
If you cannot see any change in your life and no growth in God, go to a1 to go through the “Knowing God” section to make sure that you have come to know Jesus and not just come to know about Jesus.
MOVING FORWARD ->
If you can go back to a time when you first met Jesus and you can see the changes that He has made in your life, even if they are small, then here are a few things to think about …
you do not hold on to God, God holds on to you
Once you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Saviour, there is nothing that can separate you from that relationship. Jesus said,
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28
Paul wrote,
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
The real question is, who is the one that carries the responsibility for keeping your relationship? If you feel like you are the one maintaining your connection to God, you have forgotten that He is the one who holds you.
For more information, you can also read, John 6:37-40, John 10:28-29, Jude 1:24, or 1 Corinthians 1:8-9.
you will never know enough
You may think that because your understanding of God has grown over time, you could not have been saved earlier because you did not know “enough.” But, the issue is not information; it is an issue of the heart. Next year you will know even more about God and the year after that. When you were saved, God did not require that you know everything about Him (which would be impossible); He required only that you confess your sin and believe in him. Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17
it is good to feel convicted about your sin
Often, the reason you have conviction about your sin is because God is within you and wants you to return to following Him. Christians struggle with sin because they are miserable from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and their understanding that what they are doing is what Jesus died to save them from.
“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:9
You can also read, Ephesians 1:13-14 for more information.
you do not have to live in fear everyday
When you accept Jesus, God takes away your sin and gives you eternal life. If you can lose that “eternal life” it was never really “eternal” was it?
Jesus said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
If you spend your life living in constant fear that God will turn away from you if you ever commit a sin or turn from Him, you have misunderstood the love of God.
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:15-18
We believe that the God who saved us, also has the power to keep us. As Paul wrote,
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
would you like to pray right now about your relationship with Jesus?
- Ask God for the faith to trust the strenght of His love to hold on to you forever.
- Ask God to help you not live in constant fear and to move forward in following God.
- Ask God to help you begin serving Him faithfully.