Do you ever look back on your years as a “baby Christian” and wonder if your salvation was real? If you haven’t, I hope you never do. I’ve heard it’s common for Christians to doubt their salvation during periods when they don’t feel like they’ve grown spiritually.
Sometimes I miss the first years of my Christianity when it was easy to trust, when it wasn’t hard to pick up my Bible, and when it wasn’t difficult to form a prayer. There are days when I just have to say to God, “Okay, Lord, you know my heart.” It’s hard to pray when you feel like your prayers are hitting the ceiling and falling back down around your feet.
When I was a new Christian, it was easy to read the Bible and pray. I didn’t struggle to do that, because He had saved me and I wanted to walk with Him. It gets hard to want to walk with Him when it feels like He has let you down. It gets hard to follow Him when it feels like you’re insignificant; as if you’re merely existing instead of living. But when it gets hard – when it’s difficult to talk to Him – it becomes all the more important.
1 Corinthians 1:28-30 says, “God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world— what is viewed as nothing— to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us— our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
So, Christian, when you feel insignificant or like you’re not bringing honor and glory to God through your life, take a step back. Get back into the Word. Don’t let life and its chaos rob you of those precious minutes and hours in communion with Him. When you feel like you’re not growing in your faith, remember Philippians 1:6. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Run the race with endurance, Christian. He doesn’t call the strong to do hard things; He strengthens those who He calls. Hold on to that promise that He will complete the good work He’s done in you.
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Kaelan Chamblee
