I'm Not Saved, Am I...?

You only need to make one prayer. Ask Jesus into your heart to be the Lord of your life. Repent of all your sins. Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit to guide.

The Bible says 'whosoever believes' - it does not say any if, ands or buts. Belief is all that Jesus requires. Jesus tells us He will never leave or forsake us. He is closer than your shadow and a heartbeat away.
He is your friend, just walk hand in hand with Jesus and let the Holy Spirit guide you. You do not need to be in a church on bended knee with Bible in hand to talk to Jesus.

Don't worry about all the different things to pray about to bring Jesus closer to you - He will be there - just ask Him to be the Lord of your life and let Him guide and walk with you. Be Blessed.

In general, Sharon, what you said is good: Believe on Jesus, speak to Him, receive Him into one's heart, be devoted to Him ---all will bring salvation. A difficulty for some souls is intellectualizing this and not seeing (believing) it as a personal relationship with Him ---an essential thing. Walking and talking with our Savior all day will settle it in the heart. Look up always!

I'm going to briefly quote a post I wrote here recently concerning faith:

paul1149 said:

When Jesus was approached on the subject He responded this way:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. -Luke 17:5-6
​

Essentially He told them that they should use what faith they had, however little it might have been, rather than sitting around pining for more. And all men have a measure of faith

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What you are experiencing are doubts and emotions. This is going to happen if you focus too much on yourself. It would be better to find something concerning God that you can work with and focus on that.

So instead of, "God, I'm so empty, help me. God, I'm so empty. God, I'm so empty..."[1] it will be,

"God, thank you for your goodness. Please show me what I can do on a practical level now to improve my life". Ask that little thing, believing. You have now broken it down to what is probably the smallest possible atom.

Then get to work on what little you can do. God will do the rest. All the stewardship parables teach that he who is faithful in little things will be rewarded with more. And that applies to faith as well.

Quit worrying about whether you're saved or not, and make up your mind to follow Jesus because He is worthy. He will take care of the rest because His name will now be on the project.
___
[1] I'm not belittling here. We all struggle with this, as did even the first disciples who walked with Jesus on earth. I'm just trying to help you get out of a fruitless rut.

HannahElizaW said:

She constantly and calmly said to just "look at the cross and accept what He's done"[**] ... and then repeat [**]. I personally think that is my main issue. ..

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What she's saying is true, of course. But the problem is you're not processing it very well. There are two ways to deal with this:

1. keep hammering that thought into your head in hopes that at some point you'll have a revelation and will break through.
2. in faith, change the focus to a more practical and positive approach.

Method 1 has worked for some people. And to some extent we all need be persistent and to do this at times. But it runs the risk of driving one into frustration and wasting a lot of time.

At this point, why not try Method 2? You already said salvation is not a question of a superficial confession. Why not take the whole question, which only seems to be producing a malignant, unfruitful fear in you, and put it on the shelf?

Say,


Then leave the issue of salvation there for a season. Get to work learning about Jesus and putting what you learn into practice for the sheer joy of it. Does that not fit in exactly with what He says here:?


And it is not exactly what Mary did at Jesus feet, while Martha burdened herself with work? It is, and Jesus lauded Mary for it and chided Martha, because Mary was the one who had the right priorities.

I tell you the truth, I have made my greatest breakthrough by doing just that. I have had doctrinal and other issues that were huge and were driving me crazy. I finally realized it was beyond my ability to solve, so I laid it at the Lord's feet and went on living my life in Him as best I could at that level. Within about a year I had my specific answer, and it was given by a revelation that man cannot take away.

The irony is that once you take the burden off yourself and place it on the Lord, your soul will begin to relax and will become the loose, fertile soil needed for the implantation of truth.

Trust me on this: the Lord has ways to reward those who trust in Him. This foundational truth is all over the Bible: Heb 11.6, Ps 37, Mt 5-7 and so much more.

Here's what Jesus said about salvation:

Mark 16:16 Amplified Bible (AMP)

16 He who believes [who adheres to and trusts in and relies on the Gospel and Him Whom it sets forth] and is baptized will be saved [from the penalty of eternal death]; but he who does not believe [who does not adhere to and trust in and rely on the Gospel and Him Whom it sets forth] will be condemned.

Baptism is the manifestation of your faith, and bears witness of your salvation. You have to believe in your heart the Gospel of salvation and make your confession of faith before you will be allowed to be baptized. Then during the baptism the name of Jesus is proclaimed openly over you ( aka baptism in His name and calling on the name of Jesus). At that time the Holy Spirit joins you to Jesus and you become one flesh with Him and this saves you.

Romans 10:13 (KJV)

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

1 John 5:8 Amplified Bible (AMP)

8 and there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree [are in unison; their testimony coincides].

Here's a link to a short teaching on water baptism for those who would like to read it:

http://jesus-messiah.com/html/mikveh.html

Hope this helps,

Alan

how much do you believe in gravity? you see that people and things seem to be held to the earth by some unseen power that man can't recreate or fully explain, but there's no logical reason for you to believe that there's a force puling down from below rather than a force pushing down from above (such as the recently 'discovered' 'dark matter'); yet i'd bet you just simply believe in gravity as a force pulling down and don't dwell on the lack of proof one way or the other. but you could; you could spend most of your time in mental anguish seeking proof that you likely will never find in this life.

how much do you believe in salvation? you see that people seem to be influenced by some unseen power that man can't recreate or fully explain, but there's no logical reason for you to believe that there's a force puling down from below and a force pulling up from above; yet you could just simply believe in God as a force pulling up and not dwell on the lack of proof one way or the other. but you can obviously spend most of your time in mental anguish seeking proof that you will never find in this life...

"I was officially diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder."

God has officially diagnosed you to be healed by the stripes of Jesus. modern medicine has said one thing about you, and God has said another; who will you believe? are you so knowledgeable in modern medicine that you yourself understand the absolute unchanging facts that lead to this diagnosis (if you were that knowledgeable, you'd realize that there is no certainty in modern medicine; that's why it's called 'practice'), if not, then you are simply choosing to believe what modern medicine has told you because your focus has been on modern medicine and you've excluded what God has said to you in His word. if you excluded what that says and focused on God's unchanging words of life and health, you wouldn't be making such a profession of faith in modern medicine's curse, but would instead be professing faith in God's blessing of divine health...

it's all about focus...

Jos 1:8 KJV
(8) This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Php 4:4-8 KJV
(4) Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
(5) Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
(6) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
(7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
(8) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

do not reply with a 'but'; there are no 'buts' - there is only wavering or focus

Sorry , I haven't read all replies - just had to respond to opening post.

How come we don't analyze driving a car the same way ?
We have faith the brakes will work , the engine won't blow up , it will get us to our destination - heck, we could have a laps of amnesia just before getting in and forget how to even drive.

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

HannahElizaW said:

Because the dependency on a motor vehicle doesn't prevent you from eternity in hell and it won't lead you to heaven..?

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Lol !!!
It will if your not saved.
It's still "by faith" my friend.

HannahElizaW said:

"How did you become a Christian?"
The answer: I had anxiety attacks and decided to pray to God and He turned my focus away from my problems and unto Him and I found out that accepting Jesus was the only way to get to Heaven doesn't necessarily suffice when you've doubted as much and as severely as I have.

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An anxiety attack and conviction of the Spirit can be viewed as the same thing. Would you consider that as evidence that your salvation was motivated by God? That this anxiety continues could be your proof that God hasn't forsaken you.
Paul the apostle suffered similar anxiety after years of belief, "Who will save me from this body of death!".

HannahElizaW said:

Romans 10:9...confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead and you shall be saved.
Of all my curiosity, I've never quite understood what that meant; to believe in your heart. How do you know when you believe? Is it a feeling? What does believe even mean, biblically speaking?

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Believe/belief in modern English no longer mean specifically what they mean Biblically. We internalize them making them dependent on our understanding of factualality, or even our emotional/feeling about something. I don't think the Bible is asking us to do this, because this would make our belief the cuasality of our salvation. Biblical belief is to take
the causuality of our salvation out of our hands and return it to God who alone controls and gives it. Our belief in Christ is to be in the works of Christ, death, burial, resurrection, ascention, and not in any mental assent of our own. In other words belief comes before confession, not as a result of it. Belief isn't a feeling! The feelings come later as we receive the love God has always had for us.

HannahElizaW said:

The hardest thing of all about this is that it feels deliberate. Like God has brought me this far, but I'm still on the outside looking in. Like I'm still not. Like God does not want to save me.

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HannahElizaW said:

Why doesn't God help me? Why doesn't God answer me? Why do I still feel, think, and believe like I am not saved? I don't know where I'll end up when I die....

Why doesn't God change that?

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Not to be harsh, but you could be proceeding as if anything about the actuallity of your salvation is dependent on you. If you continue to think this the anxiety will always be there. Your salvation was effected by Christ. From here if you follow the advice of other posters on this thread you should see a resolution to your feeling situation.

Best wishes in Christ.

HannahElizaW said:

"How did you become a Christian?"
The answer: I had anxiety attacks and decided to pray to God and He turned my focus away from my problems and unto Him and I found out that accepting Jesus was the only way to get to Heaven doesn't necessarily suffice when you've doubted as much and as severely as I have.

No human or kind words can feel the void of awkwardness or upset that I feel when listening to people ecstatically exclaim their personal testimony of how they were in a bad place and Jesus "turned their life around", whilst I have a response like above (previously stated).

Romans 10:9...confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead and you shall be saved.
Of all my curiosity, I've never quite understood what that meant; to believe in your heart. How do you know when you believe? Is it a feeling? What does believe even mean, biblically speaking?

The hardest thing of all about this is that it feels deliberate. Like God has brought me this far, but I'm still on the outside looking in. Like I'm still not. Like God does not want to save me.

And of course I have the enemy on my back saying "give up"..."give up already". But hellbound is not a place we ought to be.

Why is this happening, though?

I pray for faith, belief, and a heart of repentance.
I pray for my desire to sin to end.
I pray for God to make me realize deep down in this black pit of my heart that I AM a sinner and I NEED a Savior and that Savior is the ONLY way into heaven.
I pray for my heart to change.
I pray to be overwhelmed and brought down with tears and thanksgiving for what Jesus did.
I want to be overwhelmed by God's glory.
I want to want.
I want to desire more righteousness.
I want to be more righteous.
I pray for all of this.
I pray..
...........and pray...
.............................and pray.

But God hasn't necessarily answered me.

Why is this happening?

Why doesn't God help me? Why doesn't God answer me? Why do I still feel, think, and believe like I am not saved? I don't know where I'll end up when I die....

Why doesn't God change that?

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Have you repented?

HannahElizaW said:

Turned from my sins and turned to God? Yes, but there are moments of doubt.

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I'm not sure what you are doubting. I think that true repentance breaks a person in two to the point of sobbing before the Lord because of the realization of how horrid we are and the realization of how wonderful He is.

Have you repented?

You answer yes, BUT!

Its not yes, but, or yea, nah, or yes....maybe

Its YES!
Jesus saves you! Hes the only one that can, we cant do anything to save ourselves. The simple thing is to believe this, and he will do the rest!

As for believing with your heart...do you believe when Jesus was dying on the cross that he was bleeding to death??? That his heart was broken for you??? Do you know that a heart pumps blood all around the body and when it stops and theres no oxygen, that we die?