[Maximum Joy Series] Standing on God’s PromisesSample

Standing on His promises

One of the greatest tragedies I have seen amongst Christians comes from not having the assurance of salvation. They believe in Jesus, they completely understood the good news about the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Son of God lived the life that we should have lived and died on the cross for us—but still they are not sure whether they are saved or not. 

This lack of assurance comes from not standing on God’s promises. When you read the apostle John’s letter to the church, you see how important it was for him that we understood and knew that if we died tonight, we would wake up in God’s presence. 

In 1 John 5:13, he states, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” 

When someone has trusted Christ after I present the gospel, I ask them to read this verse to me aloud. I look away while they are reading, so they know I am not looking directly at the text. When they come to the word believe, I interrupt them and ask, “Bob, do you believe in Jesus?” They will usually say they do. Then I have them continue reading. This time, when they come to the word know, I rather abruptly interrupt them and ask, “Doesn’t that say ‘guess’?” They usually look a little puzzled and then say, “No, it says know.” I mildly protest by saying, “Well, doesn’t it say ‘hope’?” Now, with a little more conviction, they usually say, “No, it says, know.” Then I very quickly say, “That’s right. It says know. So, Bob, if someone comes up to you a couple of weeks from now and asks you if you will go to heaven if you die, you don’t have to say, ‘Well, I guess I will.’ Or you don’t have to say, ‘Well, I certainly hope so.’ You just say, ‘Yes, I will,’ because you know so.” 

So, my question for you today is, “Are you sure about your salvation? Do you know that you have eternal life?” These are questions that so many Christians struggle with these days. It is for this reason that the apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this wonderful verse. It is one of the most assuring of all texts when it comes to knowing we will be with the Lord when we die. You can know this very moment, right where you sit, that you are born of God and will spend eternity with Him. 

Today, and all through these days, we will learn to stand on God’s promises and to understand how to fight back when the enemy of our souls—the Devil—tries to seed doubt into our minds. By doing so, we will experience Maximum Joy.