This assurance seems to be multi-faceted and somewhat complicated. So I had this little conversation with myself to work through it:
I asked myself, "what does victory mean?"
I answered, "to overcome something."
"What does our faith in Jesus allow us or help us overcome?"
"So many things!"
At that point I got a little overwhelmed looking up bible passages and decided to choose the ones that stood out to me:
Victory over temptation
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV
Victory to overcome the world
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith
1 John 5:4
Victory in Jesus (also a powerful hymn)
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NKJV
The verse that came to mind, though, the one that I feel likes sums up the assurance we have of victory is this:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31 NKJV
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Please join me this week in praying for the unsaved that they may come to know the hope and assurance of a loving and merciful Father, of Christ Jesus who bore our sins on the cross that we may have eternal life. Pray for those who are fearful and anxious, that they may find peace and joy in Jesus. Pray for the lost that the Good Shepherd will call them to Him. And finally, pray for the opportunity, and then the words and encouragement to share our testimonies, our assurances as followers of Christ Jesus.
How awesome is it that our God, the Creator of the universe, provided a means for us to communicate with Him?! How incredible is it that He hears our prayers?!
When He answers a prayer immediately, it overwhelms me because it's a reminder that He hears little 'ole me; there could be millions of people praying at that exact moment, and yet He heard my prayer and responded, just as He did with the other people engaging with Him at that very moment. It's more than I can comprehend.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
1 John 5:14-15
I believe that our Father answers all prayers. We have to keep in mind, though that the answer is sometimes "no". Plus, He answers in His time, not ours. When we ask for something: guidance, healing, strength, etc... and it's in line for His will for us, His plan, then we will receive. Some people misinterpret certain verses to mean that God will give them the desires of their heart when what they desire are earthly things. When we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our prayers, we can be assured that we are praying "according to the will of God."
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
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Please join me this week in praying for the unsaved that they may come to know the hope and assurance of a loving and merciful Father, of Christ Jesus who bore our sins on the cross that we may have eternal life. Pray for those who are fearful and anxious, that they may find peace and joy in Jesus. Pray for the lost that the Good Shepherd will call them to Him. And finally, pray for the opportunity, and then the words and encouragement to share our testimonies, our assurances as followers of Christ Jesus.
If you ever doubt your salvation, please pray about it and delve into scripture. There are so many passages that let us know that once we're saved, we're always saved.
I know this from experience. I surrendered my life to Christ at the age of 14 (nearly 15) but became more prideful as I grew older. Around 18-19 years old, away from home for the first time as a college Freshman, I began to turn my back on Christ more and more until finally I stopped reading scripture, attending church, and praying. That went on for about 25 years and my life felt empty; it was often full of struggle.
Then, one day, God got my attention. I thought I was having a heart attack and rather than 'do' anything about it, I prayed. I'm not sure what I prayed; there was probably some bargaining in there and a lot of confessing. Obviously, I survived (please call 911 if you ever have symptoms of a heart attack; I was foolish but felt compelled to just pray).
Afterward, re-examining my entire adult life, I realized the emptiness was because of me trying to go it alone but that God never left me. He was always there. If only I had let Him in, that period of my life would have been so much easier to handle.
I'm thankful that He never gave up on me and that He got my attention and pulled me back to Him.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 NKJV
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
John 10:28-29 NKJV
It may sound boastful, but I rarely doubt my salvation. The reason is simply that the bible tells us over and over again, that once we're saved, it's a done deal. All we have to do is:
... confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:11-13 NKJV
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
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Please join me this week in praying for the unsaved that they may come to know the hope and assurance of a loving and merciful Father, of Christ Jesus who bore our sins on the cross that we may have eternal life. Pray for those who are fearful and anxious, that they may find peace and joy in Jesus. Pray for the lost that the Good Shepherd will call them to Him. And finally, pray for the opportunity, and then the words and encouragement to share our testimonies, our assurances as followers of Christ Jesus.
Do you or someone you know feel overwhelmed by everything going on in the world? As Christ-followers we have the hope and confidence in Him to guide us through this maze, but often it's scary and confusing anyway. Imagine what someone who doesn't know Christ must feel. (Although I know plenty of people who just turn a blind eye to the whole thing.) During good times and bad, we have the assurance of Christ to see us through.
I happened upon the "5 assurances" last night as I was writing something else. More correctly, God led me to find them. They are:
Assurance of Salvation
Assurance of Answered Prayer
Assurance of Victory
Assurance of Forgiveness
Assurance of Guidance
We'll cover each of them this week.
Know this:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Romans 8:16 ESV
And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
And because lawlessness will be increased,
the love of many will grow cold.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 24:11-13 ESV
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Please join me this week in praying for the unsaved that they may come to know the hope and assurance of a loving and merciful Father, of Christ Jesus who bore our sins on the cross that we may have eternal life. Pray for those who are fearful and anxious, that they may find peace and joy in Jesus. Pray for the lost that the Good Shepherd will call them to Him. And finally, pray for the opportunity, and then the words and encouragement to share our testimonies, our assurances as followers of Christ Jesus.
There was a whole lot of research that I did for this week's prayer topic that I decided not to share because they're above my paygrade, so to speak. Theologians and other scholars explain it all much better than I could ever hope to (of course), so I'll just touch on the topics.
So many Christians today seemingly choose to ignore anything in the bible that isn't in line with their beliefs; they pick and choose the passages that neatly fit the characteristics they want God to have. It just doesn't work that way. When you read and study the bible, when you spend time talking to Him, praying, you get to know Him and His character, and not just the warm and fuzzy aspects.
I made the above sign, but it was a quote from a church sign I saw last summer and have just been waiting for the perfect time to share it. It is a very sad and unfortunate part of life; people reject God. In rejecting Him, they're choosing to live eternity in hell.
We as Christians do a terrible disservice to unbelievers (and perhaps it's a selfish and futile attempt to take the burden and pressure off of ourselves) when we don't openly talk about sin, hell, the elect. Time is running out. We have to talk about these things. Find a way. If you've ever wondered why you're here / what's your "destiny", this is it! It's the same purpose, the same destiny for all of us. We're here to share the gospel. Period. Plain and simple.
Since I'm not going to type out this week's research and notes, I do want to at least share some resources:
If it's still on Netflix, you need to watch "American Gospel". It's really informative, mostly covering the prosperity gospel, but it has a lot more to it than that. Note Ray Comfort's approach to sharing the gospel. Several years ago, he completely changed my mind about Creation with his DVD "God vs. Evolution", which I also recommend.
Next, I recommend the book, "Whatever Happened to Hell?" by John Blanchard.
Finally, my husband suggested this awesome sermon which I listened to today and it gave me chills. If I weren't already a Christian, this would've scared me enough to convert. It's called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by the theologian Jonathan Edwards. He preached this sermon in 1741 and it has withstood the test of time. Below the video you'll find the transcript of the sermon so you can follow along - that's what I did.
The link to the transcript of the sermon can be found here.
Here's an excerpt from it:
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: for “who knows the power of God’s anger?”
Because of his sermon, I feel even more compelled to share not only the Good News but also the Bad News for those who do not repent. Non-believers see us as judgmental, hypocritical. They need to understand that we all sin, and why we sin, and why, because of our sin, our loving and merciful Father in Heaven sent His only begotten Son to die a horrible, horrible death and bear God's wrath for all of our sins.
This is often referred to as The Unpardonable Sin...
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Matthew 12:31-32 NKJV
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Please join me in praying that we as believers get to know all the characteristics of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through spending time in the word, and through prayer. Let's pray that we grow in knowledge and understanding so that we can share the truth with others. Pray that we're given the words and encouragement to share the gospel with unbelievers and save many souls from an eternity in hell.
For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isaiah 61:8 ESV
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Please join me this week in praying for ourselves and others that we may avoid the characteristics and actions that God hates. Pray for direction and strength to be more Christlike. Pray that we come closer to the Father by getting to know Him better, through Scripture and prayer. And finally, pray that by doing these things, non-believers will see Christ through us and our actions and want the peace and joy and hope that we have because of Him who first loved us.
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalm 5:4-6 ESV
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Please join me this week in praying for ourselves and others that we may avoid the characteristics and actions that God hates. Pray for direction and strength to be more Christlike. Pray that we come closer to the Father by getting to know Him better, through Scripture and prayer. And finally, pray that by doing these things, non-believers will see Christ through us and our actions and want the peace and joy and hope that we have because of Him who first loved us.
