Saved

Tears of joy filled my eyes as Isaac told me his testimony.  My nine year old son had been struggling for a few years over what he really believed.  Questions like these would plague him in the night:

Is Jesus really real?
How can I know for sure He died on the cross?
Is God even there?

There were more of course, but these are the biggies he has dealt with.  And really, don't we all at one point or another?

All you who have had young children know that when they are little they believe anything you tell them.  Thankfully that know-it-all attitude doesn't begin right away, but if you told a small child that pigs can fly, they would believe you simply because you are Mom and you know everything.  That's the way it is when you tell a small child about Jesus.  They will believe you simply because you know everything.  At some point in the child's life, they will have to tear apart all the information and examine it.  They will mull it over and have to believe it for themselves.

A few nights before Isaac went to Bible camp with his dad, he came out of his bed at 10:30 needing to talk with me. He was really worked up saying he really wanted to believe but he just couldn't trust it. We sat on the couch and talked it over and I prayed with him.  I finished up by telling him that I could talk to him all night: answer all his questions, and it wouldn't make it easier for him to believe.  He needed to take the step of faith for himself.

I've been praying for a long time for my oldest child in this that God would give him faith as small as a mustard seed.  Just enough faith to believe.  To trust. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Acts 16:31.  You see, our faith grows. Just as a newborn child grows and matures, so do we as Christians.  We start out as babies and then we grow in our faith.  And the Bible talks about coming to God with "child-like" faith.  Trusting God as if we were a small child trusting our earthly parents.

So, during his week at Bible camp, Isaac finally believed.  Greg was taking each camper aside to see where they stood spiritually.  Isaac told me this:

"We were sitting on a hitching post eating snow cones when Dad started talking to me.  It was then that I knew I believed for sure."

Believed what?  That we are sinners without hope.  Our sin has separated us from God. That Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins and give us eternity with Him.  That Jesus rose on the 3rd day and is now in Heaven with God. 

I then asked him something about if he was sure and he said, "Without a doubt."  And really, he has had no doubts since then.  No more struggling in the night, no more questions about the trustworthiness of God and His Word.  No more hesitations.  He believes!

Now, will he go through doubts again at some point in his life? I can almost 100% guarantee that he will, but not because God hasn't saved him, but because of his own faith faltering.  How many of us have had doubts along the way? Most of us if not all of us, right? Thankfully God promises that NOTHING can pluck us from the Father's hands.  Not even times of questioning.  We are saved when we believe.  Period.  (A person who continually questions the faith needs to evaluate if he was ever really saved to begin with.)

Isaac will be baptized in a few weeks and I'm sure I will write more about that when it happens.  For now though, I want to tell everyone I meet that Isaac has been saved.  And so I am telling you! What joy to know he is a believer!