If You Ever Doubt Your Salvation or Want To Disciple Someone, Then Read This!
The key to what being a Christian is really all about. Ever wonder if you are really saved? Ever think that you are doing most of the things you should each day but you are missing real joy in your life? Ever miss church a few Sundays, or didn’t read the Bible for a week, and didn’t miss it that much? Ever go days without praying, and when you do, all you pray about are the things you need? DO YOU EVER WONDER IF YOU REALLY ARE A CHRISTIAN?
Doubt is one of satan’s most effective weapons. One of the common prayer requests that I get daily here at Liveprayer is from people struggling with doubt. Doubt that God exists. Doubt that the Bible is really the only Truth. Doubt they are even saved. These are very common and normal thoughts that ALL Christians deal with from time to time. Doubt becomes a tool the enemy uses to try and paralyze Believers from growing in their
faith, from effectively serving the Lord, and from enjoying the joy of their salvation.
The answer to doubt of course is our faith. Faith in a God who created the heavens and earth. Faith in a God who created each one of us in His own image. Faith in a God who loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins so that we could be reconciled back into fellowship with Him for all eternity. Faith in a God who has given us His Word to guide and direct our journey here on earth.
While we all get weak at times and have doubts, the answer to those doubts is maturing in our relationship with the Lord. This is the key to what being a Christian is really all about. Many people who are truly saved and going to Heaven when they die are being constantly tormented with doubt, struggling in their daily lives, and not only missing so many blessings, but not fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for their life because they have never experienced a real, intimate, personal relationship with the Lord! They are saved, but have never developed a real relationship with Christ.
The reality is, in many cases it is isn’t even their fault. How is a person supposed to know what to do next after they get saved unless someone tells them? They feel the same, live in the same place, have the same job, hang out with the same friends, and most of the time keep doing all the same things they used to do. Mentoring new Believers, discipling those who are new to the faith is something we have stopped doing.
Why? It takes time, effort, and commitment to disciple someone and people are simply too selfish to pour their lives into someone else’s. Every Believer should be mentoring or discipling a younger Believer! I have tens of thousands of emails from over the years sent by people who tell me they have been in church all their lives, but until they started reading the Daily Devotional, had no clue, no idea how they were supposed to live to make their faith in Christ real in their every day lives.
Let me take a few minutes right now and give you the most important and basic element of what being a Christian is all about. It is about having a personal, intimate, vibrant, one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ. Your relationship with Christ is like any earthly relationship you have. IT REQUIRES AN INVESTMENT OF TIME, ENERGY, AND EMOTIONS if it is going to amount to anything. If you are married, think where your relationship is with your spouse today as opposed to the first time you met. What is the
difference? Lots of time, energy, and emotion! YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST WILL ONLY BE WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT!
I love you and care about you so much. Most people never grow as Christians, get beaten down by the day-to-day problems of life, end up doubting their faith because they have never developped a real relationship with Jesus Christ. You don’t do that in an hour on Sunday, or at a Bible study once a week. You grow in your relationship with Christ the same way you grow in any relationship, by investing the time and effort and emotion
into it each day!
I counsel people to get up 45 minutes early each day and read the Bible and pray before you do anything else. Start your day with Jesus. It may take discipline at first, but after a while, you will look forward to that time when it is just you and the Lord. Spend 15-20 minutes in the Bible. Take the rest of that time and just hang out with Jesus. Share your needs with Him, make sure you take time to thank Him for all He does for you each day,
and make some time to just be silent. You can’t hear when you are talking. Be quiet so God can speak to you!
I will be praying for you today. Praying that God will really speak to you through these words and that you will begin to make the time EVERY DAY to invest in your relationship with the Lord. He loves you so much and desires to have a relationship with you! Imagine that. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you! All of the doubts, and fears, and questions will start to fade the stronger your relationship with the Lord becomes. You will live each day with great confidence in knowing that it is not you in control, but JESUS who is in control. That is what it means to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh.
The key to what being a Christian is all about lies in your daily, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It will become not only the most important relationship you will have during this life, but never forget that it is the only thing that you will take from this life into eternity!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller
If I can help you in any way you can contact me through my personal email at:
bkeller@liveprayer.com
***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY? The fact is you will die one day. At that moment, you will either spend eternity with the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness forever separated from God your creator. To know for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.cfm
***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is now available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to http://www.liveprayer.com/Audio.cfm Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by phone by calling, 1-845-510-2722
December 17, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I would like to tell you that your website is helpful. over the years i have doubted if i truly have been saved. my heart is that i believe he died for me and I have asked him into my heart to live. I have it not based on emotions but on faith in him and his word. Everday I am faced with doubt. Maybe its because God wants to do awesome things with my life , something big I don’t know. Or maybe something I need to do and the devil is good at what he does all I know is I know God and his character and I love him and try to serve him everyday. I do have doubt but I go on , because its not always based on my emotion its on logic that he loves me I have ask him and he will take care of me. thank you
December 18, 2007 at 9:20 am
Always remember, Shawn…God is not a man that He should lie! Read His Word daily and take to heart what God is saying. He really means it and He loves you very much. Also remember that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So put that doubt away and walk in faith and confidence in God. God bless you.
July 23, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Thank you so much for this website! I just recently received the Lord into my heart & although I know exactly what I felt that day, I still have doubts try to bring me down & try to make me doubt that I am a Christian. I am trying to get my faith stronger by going to church, praying & studying the Bible & just handing over my doubts to the Lord. It has really helped but of course I still get doubts here & there but I really truly appreciate your wonderful advice. I will definitely start making extra time during the day for the Lord. Thanks!
August 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Thank you immensely! I have these doubts all the time but God keeps trying to get me closer. Please pray that I have a close relationship with the Lord. Thank you so much for this!
September 26, 2008 at 5:34 am
I was brought up in a christian home and all my family were saved except me. At the age of 9 I remember being so scared of being left behind. I kept on asking the Lord to save me but never felt I was, until one time I was absolutely sure and told my family I was saved that night. Since then I have struggled with doubt. What if I didn’t say the prayer right, what if I didnt feel sorry enough for my sin, all these things.
I have been through some awful times of doubt but tried to keep it to myself as other christians I know seem so full of joy and would probably find it hard to understand how I could feel like this. I remember someone saying if you werent sure of salvation then you werent saved.
Now I am older and have a family of my own and I dont want my children to go through what I did. I realise that my doubts were because of my lack of prayer/reading my bible and spending time with my Lord. As for thinking did I say it right or feel bad enough about my sin, then I only have to look at what Christ did for me at Calvary and I couldnt feel any worse about my sin. My bible tells me to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. That should be enough for me, it doesnt say we have to be clever or do something amazing, it just says ‘believe’. I trust will all my heart that Jesus Christ is Gods Son who came to earth to die for my sin, that He rose again and that He is now preparing a place in Heaven for those who love Him. I love Him with all my heart and despite still having the occasional doubts, know that if I stay close to Him and listen to Him, He will help me through these times.
September 28, 2008 at 11:58 am
This is hogwash. Doubt is a normal reaction-and it helps one learn to be closer to G-d.
This being saved business is also hogwash.
You live a life in Christ and you will be closer to G-d-worrying about being saved means you doubt G-d’s saving grace.
Aren’t you so against doubts?
November 8, 2008 at 3:42 pm
One of the root causes of doubts is that we dont really believe God loves us. A lot of what we learned from our parents reflects in who we think God is. We are iffy oh his character. I thought I would share this little snippet from my blog about getting some insight into his character.
Want real insight into Gods character?
16 01 2008
Just a quick note on something God told me one time.
I asked him to tell me what he was like.
He told me that to understand him better that he wanted me to deeply think about this…
He said,
I made tickle spots on people on purpose,
now think about that.
Have you ever tickled a child? Did you know that the lord God of all time space and dimension, the one that hung on a cross to die for your sins, the one they made that impressive cathedral for?
He had to purposely design tickle spots when he designed man. That little giggle your kiddos make when they get tickled is designed.
What kind of mind designs tickle spots into humans? Think about that for very long while that will do you some good. Next time your getting too religious think about that.
Its fun to see the reaction in our minds when we think of this truth. This worlds dark and small ideas about who God is gleefully crashes in a heap upon this rock solid solid happy truth.
Its nice to see that kind of God playfully peeking out from behind the religious image of God the world creates in our mind. Watch how quickly the mind tries to go back to the old religious image but don’t let it, Make it obey the truth in this. Stare intently at the mind of deity revealed in the tickle me Elmo carefully designed into each of us. Soon you will see something real and wonderful.
from thingsgodtaughtme.wordpress.com
November 26, 2008 at 12:46 am
Hi, I was a fervent christian until about 6 months ago when i started battling with anxiety and depression i reached to a few people i knew at my church to help me with the fears I was feeling and they all started telling me what we already know fear is not from God that I had to rebuke the devil and throw scriptures at him… I did all that and my anxiety and depression kept escalating, specially when a lady from church told me that i needed a deliverance because maybe i was possesed by a spirit of fear… anyway to make a long story short, as i was getting worse to the point that i ended up in the hospital my so call friends from church that “meant well” started judging me telling me that I wasn’t a true christian because i didn’t trust God in my life this started giving me doubts about my salvation and if i was really a christian because all those that were telling me thiese things seem so strong in the Lord that It made me feel like I was a hipocrite because my faith wasn’t as strong as theres… Finally i went to see the pastor for prayer and told him my doctor had referred me to a psychiatrist to be treated for depression the pastor told me I didn’t need a psychiatrist that what i needed was the deliverance.. well I got into a nervous breakdown and taken to the hospital were i was treated with medication which helped me come out of the hole where i was, I’m saying all this because us as christians can experience depression and anxiety ,we need to stop telling christians that haven’t growned deep roots in the Lord yet ,that REAL CHRISTIANS don’t go through anxiety and if we do we don’t have faith, well that is not true because our flesh is weak and i don’t care what anyone says there are a bunch of so call christians out there experiencing all this doubts and anxieties and don’t want to say it and what they do by trying to portray a picture that it isn’t is hurting those of us that are learning, i got to the point that i started doubting God and the bible and everything that i have always believed in. now that I am better and recuperating from my emotional drama I see that i still have my faith even though i don’t understand everything God those, I choose to keep believing in HIM but i have to admit that i lost faith in all churches I feel that sometimes they don’t know what they are preaching they want you to think that because we have Jesus on our side everything is going to be PEACHY in your life and that is wrong because when tragedy strikes thats when we start questioning God and doubting Him… Believing in Jesus only quaranty us eternal life not riches on this earth, and good health and perfect kids that fear the Lord, a perfect marriage etc, etc, God doesn’t always gives us what we pray for and we have to accept that!! And yes He still loves us when we doubt, sin and are afraid because He understands that we have never seen Him is by faith that we are believing and faith means HOPING THAT IN WHOM WE BELIEVE REALLY EXIST so we can’t judge ourselves for doubting, I just wanted to bring this up because we are facing hard times in this generation and i think that sometimes believers can hurt believers more than giving them the support that they need and that can damage a chritian that is not rooted in the Lord yet!! I’m glad to have bumped into your website and to see that some christians like you do care and understands that after all we don’t understand everything and is not until we die that we are gonna really find out the truth!! But like a phrase I heard once I rather died believing to find out that God is real than to die not believing and find out God is everything I was told in life.. God bless you all… I hope I didn’t offend anybody I just wanted to make clear that we have to be very careful as christian not to judge our brothers and sisters when they are having A HUMAND EXPERIENCED there are people that are weaker than others in facing the struggles in life and sometimes need professional help and medications and that doesn’t make us any less christian, if we were perfect and as strong as the rock of Gebralta we wouldn’t Jesus!! God bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving
May 24, 2009 at 2:05 am
Please pray for me! I’m scared because sometimes I find myself doubting about God. Sometimes I wonder if he really did die for my sins. Please pray that I will begin to have a personal reltionship with the Lord so that I can know in my heart that he truly is my savior! Thank You!
June 13, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Thank you so much for this article. I am a Christian and have been plagued by doubts concerning my salvation for years. All of the comments made have also practically mirroed my experiences.
I too felt that I had to hide my doubts from other believers, for fear I would be judged. I also worried that I had gone about the process wrong, that I wasn’t really saved, etc. It was awful. I just want to get to a point where I don’t have to ask my pastor or other leader at my church about my salvation.
I want to KNOW that I am saved and stop worrying about it. God didn’t create man to have them worry about where they were going to spend eternity.
Maritza makes a great point. Just because we accept Jesus into our hearts doesn’t mean things are going to turn out great for us. We will still go through the same problems and have the same fears as a non-believer. Yet all we’ve had to endure in this life will have been worth it when we see God face to face.
I think the root cause of my doubts is the fact that I’ve neglected my prayer/bible reading time. This article gave me hope as well as peace. Guess I am not the only one with doubts after all.