Friday, November 7, 2014

Are you Truly Saved and Born Again?











   For people that get saved and born again, there may come a time(s) when you question yourself as to whether you were genuinely saved or not. I know this question popped into my mind several times this year.

   So how does one know if you are in fact saved? Is there some kind of proof that you've received God's Saving Grace? Well I can tell you how I have come to know.

   For starters, before I was saved, if you would have asked me what my religion was, I would have answered Christian. Yet I had not at that time admitted my sins to God, asked for forgiveness, repented, and understood just exactly what Christ did for me by dying on the cross. I had never actually read the bible (just could not get through it and never considered it's real importance) and it certainly didn't dictate how I lived my life. Yeah, growing up I was told it was the word of God, but it was never impressed on me that I needed to live my life by those words.

   So, I was just living my worldly life like everyone else around me. If you asked me if I was a good person and would I be going to Heaven, I would have answered, Yes! However I continued to sin, do the same things I had always done, and did not really understand what being a Christian really meant.

   Now fast forward to after I admitted my sins, asked for forgiveness, repented and excepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and most importantly truly meant every word of it. A lot of "firsts" began to happen in my life. I started attending a bible based church as an adult, by choice; singing in church worship (something I always resisted in the past); baptized as an adult; enrolled in a college level bible study program; started explaining the gospel to others; led my first prayer in public; began tithing; started actively becoming a good steward of God's money and actively helping others to do so; I make the time to be available to others in need; gave up all forms of pornography; changed the movies, TV and music I consume; my friends have changed; and I'm working on eradicating foul language and using the Lord's name in vain (still in progress).

   All of these things came as a byproduct of being Born Again. When you are truly saved, the Holy Spirit will reside in you and you will begin to evolve spontaneously. You will also take notice of "firsts" happening in your personal life. You will turn from your worldly ways perhaps for the first time in your life.

   All those things started happening to me, not because I sought each of them out, but because when you become a Born Again Christian, you will be living in this world, but not of this world.

   That's how I came to know that I am truly Saved and Born Again :)