𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮

1. But are you sure?

I shared my testimony here a while ago, but that was before I got baptized and in general I think I've just gotten better at telling it accurately so I figured it was time for an update.

So!

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I grew up in a Christian home and have gone to church my whole life. Both of my parents were saved long before I was ever born. There was never a moment in my life when I didn't truly believe that God is good or that He created everything around me. I even went to a Christian school.

If you had asked me then how a person can be saved, I would have said something along the lines of, "Give your life to Jesus and have faith in Him, not in your own works, to save you."

Which is right...

But it was just head knowledge. It was memory. It was what I had been taught my whole life, so of course that's what I would say. And I believed it, but I don't think that at the time I fully understood what that meant for me.

Around junior high/highschool age is when I think things started changing. My pastor has always taught---actually, the Bible itself clearly states multiple times---that Christians can absolutely be sure of their salvation. A true believer can know with utter confidence that when they leave this world they will be immediately with Jesus in paradise.

I remember once my sister and I were walking through the merchant hall at our county's fair. There was a stand where a local church was handing out pamphlets. Now, whether or not that church had sound doctrine I can't say. But as we passed by one of the men asked my sister and I a pretty out-of-the-blue question.

"Do you know if you're going to heaven?"

I stopped. My sister smiled at him and kept walking. "Oh, yeah," she said, "we're Christians."

"But are you sure you're going to heaven?"

It took me a second to process. My sister was still walking away, but the man was looking at me. I didn't know what to say, so I hurried after her.

Telling it like this, it sounds like more of a profound moment than it really was, but that question got me thinking.

I genuinely had no idea whether or not I was going to heaven. I knew that Bible-believing Christians were supposed to have assurance of their salvation, so the fact that I didn't confused and kinda scared me.

I let that uncertainty sort of sit in the back if my mind for a long time, and a while later, some things started changing that brought it right back again.