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Home Search Topics Contact About | Assurance Of Salvation 2A lack of assurance of salvation is often connected with forgetting God*s promises or not knowing them in the first place. Many times it results from simple misunderstanding of scripture. Simply studying the Bible will provide blessed assurance for believers. 2 Peter 1:11: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When something is ministered unto you it is given to you by someone else. It ought to be obvious that the only one with the power to give you an entrance into the everlasting kingdom is the Lord. When someone gets fuzzy about who will take us to heaven or how we get there it is no wonder that he lacks assurance and joy. He usually thinks he has to do something he is not doing or that he has to stop doing something he is doing in order to get to heaven. Getting into heaven becomes something that is up to him. Since he is powerless to get himself there it isn*t any wonder that he doubts his salvation. 2 Peter 1:9: 2 Peter 1:5-9: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Be diligent, add virtue, add knowledge, add temperance, add patience, add godliness, add kindness, add charity. A Christian that has not added these things has forgotten that his sins were purged. He cannot enjoy what he has forgotten. Some Christians who lack assurance forget to confess their sins. 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. True confession of sin ought to include forsaking it. Proverbs 28:13: He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Unconfessed and habitual sin shorts out a Christian*s relationship with the Lord. It interferes with joy. It interferes with assurance. It garbles God*s clear messages to us. It prevents Him from hearing our prayers. Isaiah 59:2: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Some believers forget who keeps them. Once we have trusted Christ, we are kept by His power not by our own power to avoid sin. 1 Peter 1:5: Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. A person who has experienced God*s forgiveness and the joy and peace that come with it feels worse when he commits a new sin than he did when he was an unbeliever because he has now experienced that joy and peace. Darkness is not as frightening for one who has never experienced light. When King David sinned he did not ask God to restore His salvation, he asked God to restore the joy of his salvation. Psalms 51:12: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Joy and peace are the fruit of the Spirit. When we are walking in the flesh rather than being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit it is no wonder that we lack assurance. Galatians 5:22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, The Holy Spirit is the One who informs us that we are the children of God. When we quench the Spirit we quench that information. Romans 8:16: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 1 Thessalonians 5:19: Quench not the Spirit. If we do not serve and obey the Lord we will have little or no assurance. Commitment comes before assurance. Obedience comes before assurance. Proverbs 16:3: Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. |
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