"If you - by some unwanted reason that we hope does not happen - died today, do you think you'll go to heaven?" I asked a young student once after opening a door to share the gospel.
"I'm not sure," He answered.
We've all had that feeling before - not being sure whether we're really saved or that we are truly and one hundred per cent Christian already. Maybe you felt like you had too much sin to confess or that your heart was still divided between God and some other idol. We've all felt far from God at some point and it makes us question our salvation.
How do we make sure we aren't the kind of people Luke 6:46 describes as fake people who call Jesus "Lord" but will not come into His kingdom? How do we separate truth from lies when there are more reasons to believe we're going to hell than going to heaven?
Christianity is not a feeling
What we must first come to terms with is to get it into our systems that Christianity has very little to do with feelings and has everything to do with faith. We can remain in faith even when our feelings aren't really matching up to it. Fighting for your devotions, persevering in trial or trusting in grief are just some examples of times where faith is very much alive even when feelings are not.
Ephesians 2:8 reminds us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." When your faith - not your feelings are set on Jesus and His finished work - that's when we are saved.
Start with what Jesus has done, not with what you should do
Looking further into Ephesians 2:8, it also iterates that salvation is "not your own doing; it is the gift of God." We don't start with what we have to do for God. When we do that, Christianity just becomes another religion with a set of rules and regulations to follow. Christianity is a relationship before it is a belief system. Because of that, we start first with what Jesus has already done for us.
Much of the work has already been completed by Christ on the cross. All we are to do now is simply believe even if we don't feel like it.
It all boils down to love
1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." The only reason why we are Christians and thus now belong to Christ is simply because God loves us so much and wants to be with us. Our natural response to such a love is also to return it with love, maybe not in the same magnitude because we can never outlove God, but still with the best we can offer.
Love is not a feeling. It is a decision to commit. This commitment does not even come by our own strength, but simply from the Holy Spirit that gives us the will to press on if we simply ask and receive. At the end of the day, Christianity is a call to love God and others and many times that has very little to do with feelings.
