How shall I know if I’m right with God?
We shall not know by whether we have an abundance of this world’s goods. It is not uncommon for well-known preachers to say that if you are following Jesus you’ll be enjoying an abundance. Neither Jesus nor the apostles taught that nor did they experience such themselves. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’” (Matthew 8:20). Paul was at times “in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Corinthians 11:27). Being in abundance or in lack shall mean nothing to us about whether we are right with God. Contrary to carnal thinking, being in want can be a time when we lean all the more upon God and His strength to carry us through, and in the end actually grow spiritually. We can know this: that whether full or hungry or whether abounding or suffering need, we can be content because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:12-13).
We shall not know by whether we suffer personal setback, sickness, or disease. It seems men have long put too much meaning into this. Eliphaz suggested to Job that he must have been plowing iniquity in order to suffer as he was, but he was wrong (Job 4:7-8). And Jesus’ disciples were thinking this way, for in John 9 they asked Jesus whether the blind man or his parents sinned, causing him to be born blind (John 9:2). But Jesus Himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3), and the apostle Paul suffered many perils for the sake of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:24-28). Again, personal setback and physical weakness should bring us to rely upon God all the more. Paul learned this with his thorn in the flesh which he pled with the Lord three times to remove. “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Difficult physical
circumstance may cause you to question or doubt. But let us not think like the world. We shall not know whether we are right with
God by circumstance. But this is how you
and I will know whether we are right with God:
“But whoever keeps His word, truly
the love of God is perfected in him. By
this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5). Have you tested yourself against His
word? Are you right with God? -Larry
Jones