Afraid of losing salvation

[Billiards Ball]

17 hours ago, ColorfulBlossoming said:

Greetings...it's embarrassing to talk about this, but I think I need to talk about this...

Intrusive thoughts of a unbelieving nature that claim things such as"God doesn't exists" have been tormenting me for a while and I feel guilty when they pop up, even when I hate these thoughts and I don't want they appear.

Almost always, when I have a feeling that they'll appear, I start to frighten due to this feeling, and sometimes when that happens I try to do something to avoid them (such as think about God's grace and try to be calm), but this doesn't always work.

The worst thing is that sometimes, after they appear (especially the one that claims "God doesn't exists"), I feel like I had believed what they claimed (or like I had thought them deliberately) and them I feel distressed due to that feeling, and when that happens I pray to God the "prayer about salvation" (the one in which you accept Jesus as your only Lord and Savior with genuine repetance for the sins you had committed and with genuine faith that He's God and He died and arose from the dead because you can't save yourself with works) because if that feeling wasn't a false alarm and I believe stupid things such as "God doesn't exists", I fall from salvation, because I can't be saved without faith...so I pray that after that happens, just in case...and after I pray that, I exanimate to ascertain whether I am a true Christian or not with questions such as "Do I believe God exists"? And I come to the conclusion that yes, that I believe the God of the Bible exists, that Jesus is God and He died in the cross and arose from the dead...and then I'm confident that I'm saved until these thoughts appear again and I feel like I had believed them or had thought them deliberately... I even had already found theological/philosophical, logical and scientific evidencs in favor of Christianity, which helped my faith to grow, and I even had thought about studying theology and to be an apologist.

Honestly, I'm scared to die as a unbeliever and to God to hell...I DON'T want that to happen...I love Jesus and I don't want to leave Him. I don't want to be an unbeliever.

Maybe I have religious OCD; maybe I had never fallen from salvation and that feeling is justo a false alarm and I believed that I had fallen from salvation by fear and paranoia; or maybe not matter what God would do I'll go to hell, because If a Christian can deliberately loose they salvation (because God allows humans have free will), them I'm probably doomed. Honestly, I'm confused, and afraid...

You can escape Satan's trap in three ways:

1) Realize that fear of losing salvation is a VERY strong indicator you're saved!

2) Meditate on the love of Jesus--God isn't some abusive, angry punisher of CHRISTIANS

3) Make sure you're saved. Are you trusting YOU for salvation or Jesus?

[lovethelord]

16 hours ago, ColorfulBlossoming said:

Before I became a born again Christian, I had obsessive thoughts of another nature, but after I became a Christian those particular thoughts dissapeared, and then I started to have those tormenting thoughts of a unbelieving nature.

HI ColorfulBlossoming,

I was thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you were doing today. Do you notice that when you became a Christian that OCD thoughts you had before disappeared?  Now that your a believer in Christ the enemy finds you worthy of attack and he knows where to get you at your weakest by feeding you with doubt and lies.  Now is the time to put a stop to his mind games and put on the armor of God with prayer. Discouragement creeps its way in when we take our eyes off of God and focus on the negative thoughts.  When this happens take control of your mind and redirect your thoughts back to God's Word in prayer and in reading the Bible. Don't give any more time and power to those useless thoughts. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.  Call up his power and pray and continue to read the bible.   

• 2 Timothy 1:7, "for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
• Romans 8:31-35 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
• Joshua 1:9  Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

19 hours ago, ColorfulBlossoming said:

Honestly, I'm confused, and afraid...

Assurance is something that grows and matures over time.  It would be nice if we had it in completeness immediately, but it is a result of our trust and confidence in God growing over time.  As we spend months and years and decades walking with God and seeing His hand in our lives and those around us, our trust and confidence and familiarity with Him grows.  Doubts and fears are displaced over time with trust and confidence and assurance.

As far as I can tell, most (probably all) young believers struggle with this at times.  There is the initial working of God in our lives where we become aware of His presence, and then there are the doubts which usually arise.  There really isn't any shortcut to eliminating these doubts and fears.  Assurance is a fruit of spiritual growth and maturity.  It is not an intellectual exercise of trying to eliminate doubt.  It is the deep and profound conviction in our hearts that we are in God's loving hands that comes over time from getting to know Him more and more.  

[JustPassingThru]

Hi Blossoming,

Now back to your question, you have been give some good Scriptural advice, may I add what James taught us, Resist the devil and he will flee James 4:7, ...how I do that, when he murmurs in my mind, is to counter with, "But the Word of God says this," and quote a verse, ...Jesus used the Word of God to defeat the temptations, ...showing us He didn't use His supernatural powers to defeat satan, so that we can see satan was defeated by a man, ...and we can defeat him the same way, ...with the Word of God.

Lord bless

[Justin Adams]

If ever I have thoughts like this I refer to Job.

And then I repeat what he said. "Even though He slay me, yet will I bless Him"

You just say: "I believe in you Yeshua/Jesus, and that is that." 

[ColorfulBlossoming]

On 8/8/2019 at 11:18 PM, Debp said:

You say you are born again and love Jesus and don't want to leave Him.   So just reject these thoughts....rebuke them in the name of Jesus, then think on something else or meditate on a Scripture verse.   If you keep doing this, I think the thoughts will lessen and eventually disappear.

Hi, thanks for the advice. Lately I'm trying to ignore them, because if I don't, they won't leave. Although I have to say it's not easy to do so and sometimes I fail to do so either for my desire to reply them saying things like "no, that's a lie" or "that's stupid"; or for feeling like I'm approving them if I ignore them.

God bless you.

[ColorfulBlossoming]

On 8/9/2019 at 2:04 AM, missmuffet said:

Don't believe Satan's lies. He is working hard now on believers. Sometimes Satan whispers those things in our ears. You know you are saved. Just stay focused on God and pray to Him and ask Him to protect you from the evil one. It sounds like you are dealing with a fair amount of anxiety. Do you think that is the case?

Hi, God bless you. Yes, almost always when these thoughts appear I feel anxiety. Sometimes I can't sleep well because of them.

[ColorfulBlossoming]

On 8/9/2019 at 9:36 AM, Tzephanyahu said:

Shalom @ColorfulBlossoming

Interesting,  you may be facing such challenges to really test your faith, if you are destined to be an apologist... 

I would stop doing this.  Have faith, my friend.  If you have prayed it once and meant it, there's no need to do it again.  My advice is to stop doing this as you will get you into a pattern of thinking you are losing salvation or even "earning" back by praying again.  Don't concede to the temptation to do so.  Stand strong with faith in the goodness of Yahweh.

This sentence shows a lot of confusion my friend.  You clearly believe in God and and love the Lord Jesus.  That technically makes you a believer.

 

I personally don't think you are being attacked by the devil.  I think he has bigger fish to fry at this time.  But your faith is suffering and it could be as a result of spiritual warfare or even directly from Yahweh.  The good news is, in both cases, the fear and confusion will go the more your read and study His Word - which will give you similar situations, remind you of His promises, put discipleship into perspective and build your faith.  Not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well.  For the New makes less sense without the Old.

Have faith my friend, have faith!  This is a big challenge for you which may even get worse before it gets better but it will get better if you hold strong to your faith and do not doubt.  As I said, this might be a training camp in preparation of your ministry as an apologist (in which your faith will be challenged regularly).  Therefore, take courage and show Yahweh how much you love Him by having faith in His promises through the Lord Jesus.

Recommended reading plan:

Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Ephesians, 1 Peter, Revelation, Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah and Matthew.  Then go through again but read every book with a guide to help you.  Let me know if you need links to resources for this. 

Love & Shalom

Hi, thanks for the uplifting words, for the advice and for the recommendations. Although it'll be really hard to stop praying this prayer for salvation everytime I feel like I have fallen from it. It's like a vicious circle...

Do you think so? That makes sense. If I get out of this situation with God's help, maybe I'll be one [apologist]. But for the moment I won't.

Well, maybe it's not always satan who's annoying me with this situation, but maybe he or his minions attack/s me sometimes, or maybe it's my own fault? (Or both?)

God bless you. 

[ColorfulBlossoming]

On 8/9/2019 at 9:45 AM, Billiards Ball said:

You can escape Satan's trap in three ways:

1) Realize that fear of losing salvation is a VERY strong indicator you're saved!

2) Meditate on the love of Jesus--God isn't some abusive, angry punisher of CHRISTIANS

3) Make sure you're saved. Are you trusting YOU for salvation or Jesus?

Thanks for the advice.

Honestly, I don't trust myself, I'm scared to do something stupid that makes me lose my faith and my salvation :/ although I have to put more trust in Him.

[ColorfulBlossoming]

On 8/9/2019 at 11:34 AM, lovethelord said:

HI ColorfulBlossoming,

I was thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you were doing today. Do you notice that when you became a Christian that OCD thoughts you had before disappeared?  Now that your a believer in Christ the enemy finds you worthy of attack and he knows where to get you at your weakest by feeding you with doubt and lies.  Now is the time to put a stop to his mind games and put on the armor of God with prayer. Discouragement creeps its way in when we take our eyes off of God and focus on the negative thoughts.  When this happens take control of your mind and redirect your thoughts back to God's Word in prayer and in reading the Bible. Don't give any more time and power to those useless thoughts. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.  Call up his power and pray and continue to read the bible.   

• 2 Timothy 1:7, "for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
• Romans 8:31-35 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
• Joshua 1:9  Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

 

Hello, God bless you. Been living with these tormenting thoughts (like every day). But I haven't give up. (And I don't want to).

Those other intrusive thoughts of another nature appear rarely and they don't affect me that much. I though for a moment that those particular ones disappeared forever, but they didn't. But unlike the ones that attack Christianity, those don't appear that much and don't affect me that much. And thanks for the advice, I'll try to put it into practice.