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"Miss” Katie is in her 80s and has been a church member since childhood. One day she came by my office and we began to talk. She told me that long ago she responded to the invitation during a revival and was baptized. She has been bothered often since then, not having any sense of certainty about her salvation. 

A few weeks prior to our conversation she attended a revival where evangelist Phil Waldrep was preaching. He spoke of how many church members have never truly accepted God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. They might have “walked the aisle” as an emotional response to the invitation or for some other invalid reason. As a result they probably think they are a Christian but may be deceived by a misunderstanding of what repentance and accepting Christ is really about: a commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus. This is what Katie discovered about herself. 

When Katie shared these doubts and concerns with me, I must admit that you could have knocked me over with a feather. She is such a sweet woman and probably as good a person as any. But as we know from reading God’s Word, being good is not a qualification for eternal life, for only one man was ever “good enough.” That was Jesus! After talking and weeping together, Katie and I prayed. She confessed to the Lord that she had never asked His forgiveness for her sins and that she wanted Jesus to be her Savior and Lord. Afterwards she and I wept again as she realized a tremendous relief from the burden she had carried for so long. A few days later, the waterworks returned as I shared Katie’s experience before baptizing her.

Do you know with a certainty that when you die you will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven? There is no need to be uncertain. First John 5:13 says: “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” God doesn’t want you to simply hope that you are saved. He wants you to experience the joy and freedom that comes from knowing that you know that you know.