Confident in Christ!

I am confident in the fact that God has extended His forgiveness and grace to me, resulting in a hope for life beyond this one.

I accepted Christ as my savior when I was young but I didn't fully understand what that meant. I guess that I thought that as long as I had checked that box, and said that prayer I was good. I called myself a christian but my life told another story. I wanted Gods forgiveness but I wanted to fit in with my peers, I wanted to have a good time, and I wanted everything to be easy. I drank, I did drugs, I slept around, and I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew about Gods grace I knew he was loving. Surely he would forgive me for the way I was living. There was an inner turmoil going on inside of me, bible verses like Galatians 5:20-21 would haunt me. I knew that I had said a prayer and asked Jesus to take up residence in my heart but there was no proof that he was there. I could go out and have a blast doing whatever, but when I would lay down to go to sleep at night there was a fear. Am I saved or not?

Ephesians 2:8 says that it is by grace that we are saved through faith. Faith is not saying a prayer one time and then going on as if nothing ever happened, faith is receiving a promise and then living as if that promise has value. I can honestly say, I believe that Jesus was the son of God and He died on the cross for me. I am so convinced of this that I will live this life in expectation of the one to come. Jim Elliot said "he is no fool who will give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose" I am not sinless by any means, but I know that the Lord is transforming me in this life, and I will stand guiltless before Him in the next because of what Jesus did on the cross.