A series that helps consider difficult questions of the Christian faith

I think I am, but I'm not certain. How can I be sure?

Answer:

Three Likely Possibilities

For many people who are Christians, they know they are because they can remember a time when they made that commitment to Christ. Have you had such a specific time?  Moreover they can remember the time before they were a Christian and they know the change that took place.  Do you know such a change?

Other people however, made a simple commitment when they were a young child and so for them, either the memory of the time of commitment is very blurred or, because they were very young, they have no clear discernable 'before and after' lifestyles to compare. 

Then there are people for whom the coming to a place of commitment was more a slow transition rather than a specific, sharply defined, one-off experience.

So, from what we've said so far, it is possible to KNOW you are a Christian because:

•  you have a memory of a point of time when you surrendered to God and made that commitment, and /or

•  you have a memory of the sort of person you were before and the transformation that took place.

Being a "Slow Transition" Person

But what if you are one of the 'slow transition' people?

Well let's go back to the very basics of what a Christian is?

A Christian is someone who has come to a place:

•  of awareness of their need to know God and be at peace with Him, aware that there is something missing, aware that they fall short, aware that they fail, aware that therefore they must be at odds with God.

•  of belief in Jesus Christ, that God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for all our failures, by dying on the Cross at Calvary two thousand years ago.

•   of surrender to God, accepting the truth about ourselves, accepting the truth about Jesus coming, accepting that "it was for me!", desiring to know God, desiring to be led through life by Him.

•   of commitment to God, knowing that on the basis of our belief in Jesus, we can live as children of God, and commiting ourselves to receive God's love, His guidance, His power and all of His goodness.

Now, it may have been a slow transition process, but you'll know within you whether you have come to that place. You'll know within you that:

•   without God you ARE a lost failure,
•   that Jesus IS God's Son who came for you,
•   that these truths ARE for you,
•   that you ARE committed to let God bring His love into your life.

Not there yet?

Having said these things it may be that you find yourself acknowledging that you are not in that place yet. You would like to be, but you're not yet.

How can we help you along that path?  There are things you can read on this site that might help you come to a place of clear belief.

CLICK HERE if you would like to go to the pages on this site about what it means to be a Christian. They give much more detailed consideration to what it means, and that may help you.

There is Awareness only

It may be that you have read the things in the above paragraphs and you realise that you believe but have never actually come to that point of commitment. Why not do that now.  It happens through prayer.

Tell God that:

•   you are aware that you are a failure and need His love and forgiveness.
•   that you believe Jesus is His Son, and that He came to die in your place,
•   that you surrender your life to Him, for Him to lead you, guide you, work in and through you,
•  that you commit yourself to Him for the rest of your life.