Doubting Your Salvation: Knowing Jesus

Hey girlfriend, have you ever struggled with your salvation? Recently, I was asked about the assurance of salvation by a precious woman. Sadly, this is not an uncommon question. I once asked the same question. I was doing "ALL THE RIGHT THINGS," but what if doing all the things was not enough?

IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH

It was not until I realized my salvation had nothing to do with my perceived good works- I found freedom from the constant fear and anxiety that plagued my life. I believed in Jesus, I had acknowledged my sin, repented, and even prayed "the prayer." I believe on a rainy September night, in Southern Cali, God opened my eyes to what He had already done in my heart. Yet I went on to struggle for years to come, with the "ENOUGH SYDROME" as I like to call it.

Girlfriend, Salvation has absolutely NOTHING to do with our works. The act of knowing Jesus is a GIFT from GOD, that is GRACE: a gift we did not deserve. I fear that sometimes we don't shoot straight with one another in our hard times and in our questioning. We sugar coat our answers because we somehow think that spoonful of sugar will help the truth go down. We lose the clarity; we actually need salt. Salt can sting, but it is cleansing and heals our wrong thinking.

We can do nothing to receive the LOVE of Christ. NOTHING! There is not ENOUGH we could do! All of the "good works" we do are initiated by Christ through us. Before salvation, we had nothing to offer to God. In our brokenness He came to us, softened our hearts, while we were His enemies, and graciously extended His eternal love to us through salvation. he adopted us into His family; He chose us because He saw us in all of our messiness and He loved us anyway.

What Does it Mean to Know Jesus?

Knowing Jesus is about falling in love with Him, loving His word, praying, and building a relationship with Him. Somewhere along the way in the West, we have forgotten to remind each other how GREAT JESUS IS and how small we are. We have become mighty fretful about offending one another rather than speaking the truth in love. If we want a relationship we actually have to engage with God, and we do that through the power of His Word, and by praying, and listening to what He is teaching us through His Word! Just sayin!

Our assurance does not come from doing more, being better, or trying harder. Our assurance comes from the hope we have in the person of Jesus Christ.

I feared I was not saved, because I did not truly understand who Jesus was- to me personally. I really didn't like to look into the depths of my soul and be confronted by my sin. Somewhere deep within I still wanted to think I helped Jesus save me in some way. I could not have articulated that during my sleepless nights, worried that I wasn't going to make the cut.

And, guess what...

I was not faithfully reading my Bible; I was not diligently looking to learn more about who God was. In fact, I had bought into the lie that I needed to learn more about myself. Girlfriend, the enemy always counterfeits the TRUTH, He twists and distorts it. The only way to fully know yourself in a real and raw way, is to know JESUS more!

Being a Christian Makes You a Different Kind of Woman, Not Your Works

I am thankful for books, especially books by Elisabeth Elliot. I was reading "Let Me Be a Woman" when I was confronted by a thought that had never crossed my mind, she said;

"Being a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, being a Christian makes me a different kind of woman."

There it was, I was TRYING to be that DIFFERENT woman, instead of KNOWING JESUS, and simply living in the truth and allowing Christ to actually shape me and mold me into a different kind of woman.

It drove me to learn about Elisabeth Elliot's time with the Lord. I needed to be discipled, and she became my Spiritual Mother through her writing and speaking. I began reading my Bible faithfully even when it did not seem like I was getting anything from it. Slowly but surely the living Word of God began to peel back the veil from my eyes and reveal to me who God IS, which began to transform me.

A lot of times we are asking THE almost right questions, instead of the RIGHT questions. If we are struggling with our salvation, the truth is not found in us----- looking at the works we are doing will surely always leave us empty and in despair! Yes, those that know Christ will produce good fruit, but fruit will never save us, the fruit comes from our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Our salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing, minus nothing. Do you really believe that? God is not the author of confusion (1st Corinthians 14:33)! He does not want to play games with you. In-fact He is extremely straight forward. Confusion is from the enemy.

My encouragement to you- if you find yourself doubting whether you are a child of God, is nothing else but the fact that you MUST LOOK to HIM, He is the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). You are not the author of your faith sweet sister- GOD is. What a comfort that is.

Start asking yourself who the God of the Bible is. Do you believe what He says? Have you acknowledged that you are a broken, diseased woman, who desperately needs healing? Sin is a disease that kills! We are all sinners; we all fall short of the glory of God

(Romans 3:23). But GOD...

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

(Ephesians 2:4-10, ESV)

Girlfriend, this is adoption. Our loving Father reaches down, because we were all orphans in need of a family, sin separated us, and God came to earth in the form of a man; and gave Himself, to buy us back, to make us His children.

Do you believe that? Many of us have struggle bussed in the area of doubt because, we are not fully trusting God, we think we need to help Him somehow. HE IS ENOUGH!

I Never Knew You

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

(Matthew 7:21-23, ESV)

We hear these very serious words from Jesus- and we assume that we will never be able to know for sure if we are saved. Friends- Take a look at that passage, nowhere are they boasting in Christ and who He is... they are simply recounting ALL the works THEY did for God. Remember- our works do not save us. They were not telling of the WORK Jesus did for THEM! Jesus is also talking to the pharisees who were filled with PRIDE in their religious zeal and what they were doing and producing for God. Now if you are that girl, and you are in that camp, my encouragement is: forsake the false gospel you have believed and turn to Jesus, He is the only way. Trust in His finish work on the cross! He is enough!

Yet many of us have doubted our salvation because of this passage, we found ourselves in a headspace marked by fear, because this passage has been misused, pulled out of context, sadly- maybe even with the intent to make us doubt our salvation. Girlfriend, Jesus was teaching this because He was pointing out the fact that we will not enter Heaven because of our good works. We will enter Heaven because we have been covered by the blood of the lamb, by the power of Christ in us. We will stand before GOD with nothing to offer Him- Jesus already paid our way, by His death on the cross, He took all our sins- past, present and future. What we have to boast in is CHRIST, crucified on our behalf: BAM-That is it!

Jesus is Our Savior

Sister, if you believe that Christ took your punishment, if you believe that He showed you mercy, which is simply withholding the punishment that you deserve, He covered you in Grace, which remember- is Him giving you a precious gift that you didn't deserve, and you acknowledged that you are broken, dirty, and a sinner, that you have nothing, and that you need forgiveness from a righteous God, then girlfriend- what are you asking?

I know for a fact, I was HELL bound. I was wild, promiscuous, living for myself, and the next pleasure I could find. When Jesus met me, I was low, I was trying so hard, but He confronted me with my sinful nature, "I met the God/Man who told me ALL that I had ever done." (John 4:1-42, ESV). I would have never, ever on my own changed my life the way He did. I could never have dreamed up the life I have now with my, Master, Savior and Friend!

Do you know Jesus? If you are looking to your works as a means to your salvation, you have believed a lie! If you are looking to Jesus, trusting Him, seeking to follow Him, and fall madly in love with Him, and you are producing good works out of an overflowing love for Him and all He has done and is doing for you... Then that is true salvation!

You Can Know JESUS: If You Are Struggling with Your Salvation

1. Are you faithfully reading passages of Scripture? Not just a quick verse from a devotional? My absolute favorite help for reading through the Bible and actually understanding what you are reading is THE BIBLE RECAP- The Bible Recap | Read, Understand & Love the Bible in 365 Days

   
   

2. Are you connected to a LOCAL Church, a body of believers that you can do life with, ask hard questions, know people and be known? LOCAL Church matters. Christ died for the Church, lest we deceive ourselves and believe we can live the Christian life on our own. I know in the age of "online church" we think we are plugged in, but girlfriend, online Church is not local, you have no connection to those that you claim to be worshiping with, that is NOT community, it is a shadow of local community. The Pastor, you are listening to, while he may be preaching truth, he cannot shepherd you and care for your soul through the screen. If You are not part of a LOCAL church, I highly recommend checking out the website below and plugging in. NO CHURCH IS PERFECT. "Churches are like hospitals, they are full of sick people that are being made well." -Paul Tripp

   Church Search - 9Marks

Military peeps you can check this website for churches near you as well Our Churches - Praetorian Project

3. Who are you listening to? Who we allow to influence us impacts the integrity of our souls. Just because someone is using Scripture does not always mean they are wielding it appropriately. CONTEXT is KING. Some of the people I give access to speak into my life via their writing and their teaching- are any of the Pastors in the Praetorian Project, you can check out the website above. ALSO- John Pipper, Matt Chandler, R.C. Sproul, Tim Keller, Paul Tripp, Christine Hoover, Jen Wilkin, Melissa Kruger, Ruth Chou Simons, Tara-Leigh Cobble... And for my military wives you can check out www.militarywellnesscollective.com podcast for some practical Biblical teaching that speaks to your unique circumstances. That should be a sufficient list to get you chewing on some solid teaching.

4. If you have questions, I am here, feel free to connect with me, send me a personal way, shoot me an email.

hello@brittanybrown.net

I love chatting with women about Jesus. Be patient with me though girlfriend, I am a wife, mama, and heavily involved in my local church, as well as my local homeschool community. I will try to answer you within 72 hours.

Let us be women, who know our stories, and use them for God's glory. We have to stop letting the enemy bench us. Girlfriend, there is Kingdom work that has your name on it. Pick up that ball, your ball and run. The enemy wants you out of the game. The more women He has sitting on the sidelines worried they aren't part of the team, the more players he keeps from joining the team. You catch my drift! God has called you for such a time as this. It is time to lay our lives down as a living sacrifice and stop focusing on ourselves and start turning our eyes upon Jesus, looking fully in His wonderful face, only then will the things of this earth grow strangely dim, and we will begin to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Let's do this.

^'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”

(John 10:27-30, ESV)

Your story is for HIS GLORY.

Love you, girlfriend!

Come meet my Jesus, who told me ALL that I have ever done!

xoxo,

Brittany