Saved By Grace, Or Not Saved?
Even as a young boy, I believed in God and heaven, but I wasn’t sure that heaven was where I would go after I died. If I didn’t hear anything else in Sunday school, I most certainly heard John 3:16 over and over again, “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” But I wasn’t sure what it meant to believe.
I do remember one night when I was probably 9 or 10, I decided that in the morning I would go out by the well near the barn, kneel, and pray. And that’s what I did, but I don’t remember what I prayed or what I believed. I do remember that the knees of my jeans got wet, and I wondered if my mother would notice. Only God knows if that was a genuine expression of saving faith. All I know is that it didn’t leave me with the assurance that I was saved and would go to heaven when I died.
As I got older, there were many opportunities at Christian camps and youth rallies for kids to “go forward and get saved.” One summer an evangelist held a week of meetings in our little church, and I went down front and prayed. During the next few years, there were more opportunities to “go forward to make sure I was saved.” I don’t know how many trips I made down the aisle to “make sure,” but those trips in themselves did not give me a lasting assurance of my salvation.
To help those of us who weren’t sure we really were saved, some preachers urged us to write our names and the date in our Bibles, and others suggested driving a stake in the ground to confirm our decision, but those gestures weren’t helpful for me.
What did help was praying in accordance with what the Bible says. For example, John 3:16 reads, “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” so it is appropriate for me to pray something like this.
“Gracious God, thank You for loving sinners like me.
Thank You for giving Your Son to die in my place.
Thank You for promising everlasting life to all who believe in Him.
I believe in Jesus; I believe He is Your Son; I believe He died in my place.
I know that You cannot lie and that You always keep Your promises, so I believe I have been forgiven and I have been given the gift of eternal life through Jesus.
Amen"
I believe that every time you, as a true believer, have any doubt that you are saved, the most effective and God-glorifying reaction you can have is to talk to God about it. Pray a prayer of your own, thanking God for His promises and telling Him that you believe them. Assurance comes from His Word, not from our behavior.
– Lee Swift
