When I was in the 6th grade, I remember spending time talking with my mom about church, joining the church, what would the pastor say when I “went down front,” & what would baptism be like. I did go forward one Sunday morning, despite holding on to the back of the pew in front of me, trying my best to wait until another time. But I couldn’t hold on & went forward. I was baptized a short time later. After that experience, and as I got older, I had serious doubts about my status with God because all I could remember was about church and not about Jesus. During a Sunday night revival service at my church, God spoke to me that I was a church member without Jesus. After the service I found my pastor & we went to his office. We got on our knees, talked about how Jesus died for my sins, how He was buried & raised in three days, and that in Him I could have eternal life. I asked Jesus to come into my heart that night.

Having saving faith & the assurance of it has not been easy for me, with my confidence sometimes less than I think it should be. There is that lingering thought if I have done everything right or have I done all that I need to do? But I hold onto God’s Word that says “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” And knowing that I have done that & can never do it any other way, do it better, or any more sincerely brings me assurance. So since that night, my anchor in the battle with assurance is Romans 6:11, which tells me to “count myself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” If it is a “done deal” to God (I have called upon Him), then it is also a “done deal” to me (counting it to be so).