Was I even saved?

[bshaw96]

OK, I have a question. I was raised in church (though I lacked much actual guidance from my parents, we did go to church). I learned about Jesus from the age of 2 up. I just always accepted it as true. I can recall saying the sinner's prayer when I was 12. But it wasn't a life changing moment for me as it was not "new" to me. I was not delivered from despair like so many. Now in my teen years I did venture away from God, but could always feel Him calling me back, ever so patiently, but persistent. Most of my Christian life has been a roller coaster, on fire for God, not, on fire, not. I am now almost 30 and I know God is doing something in my life. He is calling me to get serious and stop sitting on the fence. But my question is about basic salvation. All Ive ever really had is a "get out of hell free card". I was not living for Him. But now Im having people tell me if I can't point to a date I was saved and my life was changed, I really am not saved. Ive heard this before but blew it off. Now Im thinking about it since Im hearing it so much. As I said, I have no "life changing day". I just always kind of accepted it. Was I never really saved? Thanks for any input.

 

[bshaw96]

Oh, I forgot, I don't feel that peace and assurance that Im saved like so many speak of. However, I have issues with trust that God is helping me with. I do not trust easy. They say you see God many times how you see your earthly father which I believe may be my case, cold and distant. But is this lack of assurance b/c Im not really saved or b/c of my trust issues? The devil really knows which of my buttons to push!

 

[nhzname]

Girl, if you said that sinner's prayer and believe in your heart and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, then you are saved. Maybe there was no blinding light like what laid Paul out on the road, but God didn't say we had to be saved that way. We are all different and therefore have different reactions to being saved.

I was much like you, raised in the church, believed, but for me I didn't make a commitment until I was 20 or 21, then had the nerve to walk away. And also like you, I heard the Lord calling me home all the time and finally returned. Notice I said 20 or 21? I don't know the exact date that I was saved, nor even the exact date that I returned 9 or 10 years ago, but I always knew that I was saved...cause the bible told me so. (Just had to throw that in)

Hope this helps some.
God bless!

 

[Serenity Now!]

I feel we are in a similar place in our lives. I think it is easy growing up in a church, that you start to take God for granted, and you end up just "going through" the motions." I must have been saved when I was a teenager. I believed in God, all right. But it wasn't until a very recent time when my father died (who was also cold and distant!) that the real glory of salvation shined on me. I really felt like I had been "born again." It was like my eyes were suddenly opened to the fullness of God's love. I will be interested to see the answers posted here.

God Bless!

 

[Adammi]

It doesn't matter what you were, but rather what you are. Saten wants to bring up your past, but God has forgotton it.

 

[homewardbound]

OK, I have a question. I was raised in church (though I lacked much actual guidance from my parents, we did go to church). I learned about Jesus from the age of 2 up. I just always accepted it as true. I can recall saying the sinner's prayer when I was 12. But it wasn't a life changing moment for me as it was not "new" to me. I was not delivered from despair like so many. Now in my teen years I did venture away from God, but could always feel Him calling me back, ever so patiently, but persistent. Most of my Christian life has been a roller coaster, on fire for God, not, on fire, not. I am now almost 30 and I know God is doing something in my life. He is calling me to get serious and stop sitting on the fence. But my question is about basic salvation. All Ive ever really had is a "get out of hell free card". I was not living for Him. But now Im having people tell me if I can't point to a date I was saved and my life was changed, I really am not saved. Ive heard this before but blew it off. Now Im thinking about it since Im hearing it so much. As I said, I have no "life changing day". I just always kind of accepted it. Was I never really saved? Thanks for any input.

I can't tell you how well I can relate to your situation. I know exactly what you mean! I was on that roller coaster for many years, and sometimes I think I'm still on it, but then realize that it's not my committment to God that has faded, but rather my inability to keep daily activities from getting between me and God, or a degree of "backsliding" that is responsible for me feeling that way.

I'm not sure I buy into the notion that you're not saved if you can't point to a date when you were saved. I'm sure it's true for some people, but for me, it was a period in my life, about a year and a half ago, rather than a specific date. All I know is that I emerged from that time with a newfound appreciation for what it means to be a Christian and a true desire to follow our Lord. I've never felt a major overnight change, but over time I have acquired a greater sense of peace, contentment, understanding, and desire to please God. I still struggle in many ways. But I know that once you make a committment to God you begin a process of cleaning up areas of your life. I don't buy into the idea that once you are saved you are a whole new person and don't have those same old desires...I think that's a ploy Satan uses to magnify our failures and squash our faith and hope. Instead, I believe that when you make that choice to follow Christ, you are spiritually a new person, but you still have to deal one by one with the same old fleshly desires, and through God's grace conquer each one of them.

There is so much more I could expound upon as it pertains to my own experience, but I don't want to take up too much of anyone's reading time, so hopefully I've shared the essence of my own struggle to affirm that I am truly "homeward bound". I hope and pray you find your answer, too.

 

[bshaw96]

I want to thank each and every one of you that replied. You have no idea what it means to me. I really let the devil drag me down sometimes despite knowing better in my spirit. I am not glad that any of you have had similar struggles, but it does help to know Ive not been alone in my thinking. God bless each one of you !!!

 

[Endure2]

amen!
ive been in church since i was little, i dont remember when i first received the Lord, it was as a small child, i wasnt as grown up in the Lord as i am now, but if id have died, id have went to heavon, i was surely saved, and God kept me through the years.

the thing is, its not about any certain moment in time, regardless of how true.
the bible says we must be renew our spirits daily. there is no one time experience that can keep you for the rest of your life, and not being able to look back to any certain kind of experience means nothing.
i never had a life changing day.
though i do remember aswesome days with the Lord.
but its always just been my commitment to walk with God in the hear and now, though the past was certainly true.

 

[SteadyRock]

Living and growing up in church invornment is hardest to be able to tell because you don't know anything but it. You can get used to it and not remember the importance that Jesus' victorious death has had for you and others. You can get bland without knowing it. You have to pray for God to keep this always in mind for you.
Even if you have never been saved it is definitely not too late. If you love the Lord and want to live in a way pleasing to Him then He will do the rest. You just have to give everything over to Him and be prepared to live beside Him and let Him live though us.

 

[Trizm]

I dont think that there must be a specific moment in your life when you became born again. For me it was more of a period in my life where i grew spiritually and committed to being with God. I think I said the prayer at about age 12 even though i was not one who grew up in a church. I really believed in what i was praying but now that i look back i dont think i was truly saved yet. I think being saved is the committment we christians make everyday to be better people despite our sins and failures in the eyes in the lord. I think it is that we surrender our life to God and worship him every day not just when we are feeling spiritual in church. Because i know many people who go to church and they are not all very moral people. I think our faith has to go outside of church doors and in to our homes, the streets and every aspect of life and that prayer was a way of expressing our devotion to being one of Gods people. Putting our faith in jesus when we never will be able to physically see him and believe in something we will not be able to show to others with tangible proof. I think being saved is not just a feeling but a committment. So there is no need for a bright shining light to go all over your body and you wake up and feel like you are a better person, just a one committed to being better.

 

[Songspinner]

I don't believe that you need a specific date to be "saved". I was born to a christian family and everyday I renue my relationship with God. I simply cannot remember Him ever not being in my life. Just like the love of a parent, it has always been there. To some it mat seem that the relationship hass become stale, but just like a long term mariage, it has grown into something much sweeter. I have never asked "where is God" and I believe that comes from a life of being "saved".