In the next few weeks, we will be answering questions that new believers ask or are too embarrassed to ask. First of all, there is no wrong question in the presence of the Lord and the Lord wants you to ask it all and he will provide the answers to you. He wants you to get close to him and you can do that by conversing with him and learning about him. I know it hard to ask these questions because you might think that the person is judging you like “For real? You do not know this? How are you a Christian?” The fear of what others think, drives us to be silent and we stumble through these feelings and in some cases fall out of the faith. I hope that as we go through these questions the Lord will give us the answers we seek and make everything plain to us.

The first question is my all-time favorite because I struggled with this for a long time. How do I know I am saved? I mean I said the prayer that everyone says, “Lord Jesus please forgive me of my sins, I ask Jesus into my life.” What happens next? Someone once said this to me earlier on, “you just know.” And I’m like “How, I do not feel different? When does this salvation take place? Am I still a sinner? We ask these questions but not everyone gets a satisfactory answer that helps. This becomes even more obvious when I sin a few days/weeks later. It’s confusing to see how easy again it was to sin. Did not the Christian person say I am saved, and I should go and sin no more?

If you are like me, you have thought these questions, have had people ask you and have maybe asked someone about these. The only thing I can tell you is Salvation is a faith journey. I call it a journey because it starts off with you asking God for forgiveness, asking him into your heart and confessing him as your Lord. Rom 10: 9 (Amplified) says,

… because if you acknowledge and confesswith your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

This first step cannot be simplified. This is the first step to your salvation journey, the beginning of your relationship with God. You must sincerely get to a place of total surrender where you are like, Lord without you I can’t do anything I need you. Then is your first step complete with faith. You need to believe that he can help you and he is all you will ever need.

Now, you will not hear bells and whistles, but bear in mind there is a paarrrttyyy up in heaven for you. “Angels are happy when even one person turns to him." Luke 15:10. After this step, the next step is furthering your relationship with the Lord. Imagine you just met a person you liked, after you meet, you start spending time and getting to know the person. This is the same with the Lord. Y’all just met at Calvary, you repented now y’all need to grow this new relationship. To do that you need to spend quality time with him (James 4:8, Jer. 29:13), read the word (Joshua 1:8), spend time with his people (Heb. 10 24 – 25), start learning about his character (Gal. 5: 22 – 23), what he likes and does not like (Prov. 6: 16 – 19). Doing all these makes for a great relationship with the Lord.

As your relationship grows, you start to hear from him, you begin to understand your purpose, what he has planned for your life, how you will serve him and so much more. I know we started off with the question am I saved, and the answer is, If you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart and acknowledge him for who he is, then you are. Ask yourself these questions. Do I want to make God happy? Do I want to know more about him? Does being in his presence bring me joy? If you answered yes to these questions, then you are on your faith journey.

Remember, Salvation is not a one time thing, you do not do it and forget about it and keep sinning hoping that the confession of a few years ago covers today’s sin. It is a relationship journey where you are learning and growing together with the Lord. I can tell you in all the years I have known him, it is still like the first time falling in love. I read his words sometimes and I am just shocked and in awe of how much he loves me and has my life all planned out.

I hope this helps to answer the “am I saved question”.