I posted a topic asking if I was saved and they told me I was, but I don't think so. Can a good tree bear bad fruit and all that.
There is definitely a place for making sure you are actually saved. Paul the apostle wrote:
2 Corinthians 13:5
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.
It is not devilish of believers to urge you to follow Paul's advice. What a horrible, horrible thing it would be to think all your life that you are saved when, in fact, you aren't and then to die and go to hell! Yikes!
How to I become born again? How do I become a new person. Saying a prayer hasn't worked. Saying a million prayers haven't worked. Maybe my heart isn't right but I don't know how to get it right. I want to be cleansed of my sin; I want to be a moral person. I want a God to talk to and to guide my life and give me direction. I want to serve this God. How do I become a new person? How do I become born again? I am willing but have been unable to do so.
Not just any belief will do. My grandfather used to preach a sermon called, "Missing Heaven By Eighteen Inches." That's roughly the distance from one's head to one's heart. My grandfather would point out in his sermon that an intellectual belief is insufficient to save a person. Merely agreeing to the truths of the Gospel, just accepting them as true, does not save. Demons have at least this measure of belief in God and none of them are going to heaven! (
Ja. 2:19) No, what is really needed is a belief of the heart; that is, a belief that anticipates real change in one's values, beliefs and
living. This was the apostle James' point when he wrote,
James 2:18-20
18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!
20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
The truth of the Gospel has to move from your head to your heart and when it does, your life will inevitably and necessarily change.
You know, so many Christians get busy living the Christian life but neglect to obey the First and Great Commandment out of which all other obedience to God is supposed to flow. We are first of all to love God with all of our being (
Matt. 22:36-38) and
then obey His other commands
as a result. But there are many, many Christians who are going to church, reading their Bibles, praying and all the other "Christian" stuff who, if they are really honest with themselves, don't actually love God much, if at all. It is these same "Christians" who will one day stand before God and hear Him say, "Depart from me. I never knew you."
So, you want to be saved? Here's how:
1 John 4:15-16
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
What is the love that God has for us that John is talking about?
1 John 4:9-10
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
When you get hold of just how much God loves you, not in your head, but in your heart, it will transform your life. Pray, then, as Paul did:
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.