How do I know that Christ is in my life?
Did you receive Christ into your life according to His promise in Revelation 3:20? "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."
Knowing Jesus Christ is the most exciting relationship you can have. It is the beginning of a life of adventure with an all-loving, all-powerful God. If you have asked Christ to come into your life, you can be sure that your relationship with God is secure. As a result of Christ's death on the cross, you have been completely forgiven and accepted by Him. There are many exciting things that are true in your relationship with Christ. Understanding these truths will help you build a firm foundation on which to grow.
My Feelings About God Keep Changing
1. Feelings can be unreliable
You might have expectations about how you should feel after placing your trust in Christ. While feelings are important, they are unreliable indicators of your sincerity or the trustworthiness of God's promise. Our feelings change easily, but God's Word and His character remain constant. This illustration shows the relationship between fact (God and His Word), faith (our trust in God and His Word) and our feelings.
- Fact - this chair is strong enough to support you.
- Faith - You believe this chair will support you, so you sit in it.
- Feeling- You may or may not feel comfortable in this chair, but it continues to support you.
The moment you received Christ by faith, as an act of your will, many things happened, including the following:
- Christ came into your life - Revelation 3:20, Colossians 1:27
- Your sins were forgiven - Colossians 1:14
- You became a child of God - John 1:12
- You received eternal life - John 5:24
- Your great adventure for which God created you began - John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:18
2. Dealing with doubts
Even though feelings are important, your relationship with Christ is based on facts, not on feelings that can change daily. Doubts, questions and varying emotions are common parts of everyone's life, but they are very unreliable gauges of anyone's relationship with Christ. The Christian lives by faith in the trustworthiness of God and His Word.
But what if you don't feel like a Christian tomorrow? Place your faith in the faithfulness of God Himself and the trustworthiness of His Word. The more you learn, the more you will be able to answer any doubts with solid facts. Your feelings will begin to respond to the truth of God's Word and not to your circumstances.
Since you have trusted in Christ's payment for your sin, understood the basis of your relationship with God and have learned five truths about your relationship, you can be confident in your relationship with Christ.
If you would like to talk through what you have learned, you can journey with a mentor and receive prayer.
This article is an adaptation by The Life Project of Dr. Bill Bright's material on Knowing Jesus Personally. It was originally posted here.
