I Don't Remember When I Was Saved

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chelsers

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#1
#1
I've been thinking about this topic actually for a while now. I notice people have concrete points in their lives where they were saved. They know the date, the age, where they were etc. I feel strange sometimes because I don't remember. I was raised in a Christian household with parents that were open and discussed faith with me. I remember praying as a child and as a teenager. In the past few years I've had those times where I got incredibly energized in my faith and other times when I seemed to be lackadaisical about it.

That said, I don't remember a specific moment. I vaguely remember a time at maybe 14 or so, but I'm not even sure about that or if I'm trying to remember it. I'm pretty confident that the first time I really started to get serious and start learning more was in my late teens.

In the past month or two, and actually years before that as well, I've been a little stressed about this, especially since I've been reading the Left Behind Series. I thought to myself, "I pray, I know I believe in Jesus and I accept him as my Lord and Savior, but I don't remember when I first said it or if I said it right." I prayed about it told God that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have the feeling that God understands my anxious mind and my need to say it again. I know part of it is that I have periods where I'm not as passionate as I feel I should be or that I don't do enough or that I missed something.

I'm sure it's just my overactive, anxious, OCD mind going over things too much, but I'm curious if anyone else can relate or at least follow that. It's a treacherous trip into my mind I must say :)

Anywho, that's just me
 
W

watchmen

Banned
#2
Apr 23, 2009
2,253
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#2
chelsers said:
I've been thinking about this topic actually for a while now. I notice people have concrete points in their lives where they were saved. They know the date, the age, where they were etc. I feel strange sometimes because I don't remember. I was raised in a Christian household with parents that were open and discussed faith with me. I remember praying as a child and as a teenager. In the past few years I've had those times where I got incredibly energized in my faith and other times when I seemed to be lackadaisical about it.

That said, I don't remember a specific moment. I vaguely remember a time at maybe 14 or so, but I'm not even sure about that or if I'm trying to remember it. I'm pretty confident that the first time I really started to get serious and start learning more was in my late teens.

In the past month or two, and actually years before that as well, I've been a little stressed about this, especially since I've been reading the Left Behind Series. I thought to myself, "I pray, I know I believe in Jesus and I accept him as my Lord and Savior, but I don't remember when I first said it or if I said it right." I prayed about it told God that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I have the feeling that God understands my anxious mind and my need to say it again. I know part of it is that I have periods where I'm not as passionate as I feel I should be or that I don't do enough or that I missed something.

I'm sure it's just my overactive, anxious, OCD mind going over things too much, but I'm curious if anyone else can relate or at least follow that. It's a treacherous trip into my mind I must say :)

Anywho, that's just me
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Well you do not have to remember the first time you confessed Christ as Savior as long as you remember the last time :)

I do have a question though. Have you ever been baptized and do you remember that?


By the way there is no left behind those book are fiction along with the pretrib rapture all of us (yes including American Christians) will be here until the post trib return of Christ, unless we die first.
 
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chelsers

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#3
#3
I was baptized as a baby so I don't remember it.

I was actually reading the thread by Maggie and she wrote this and it really resonated with me...

"And while most people can give their age or even a date as to when the transformation began, there are many who just gradually step into a realization of who He is."

That's exactly how my experience has been and I felt a lot better. It makes sense and I think I knew that all along but I needed to see it I guess. I feel like God was leading me to read that and write this out so I'd finally get it.
 
Sharp

Sharp

Senior Member
#4
May 5, 2009
2,565
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Hi Chelsers.

I know exactly what you mean. I was raised in a Christian family, and like you, have always called myself and believed myself to be a Christian. There was no point I know of that I became a Christian. I have always believed in God and accepted Jesus as my saviour, and I'm so happy about that.

You don't need to have a point in time where you were saved, just like you don't need to be baptised to be saved. You just need to know that you are saved.
 
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chelsers

Guest
#5
#5
Sharp said:
Hi Chelsers.

I know exactly what you mean. I was raised in a Christian family, and like you, have always called myself and believed myself to be a Christian. There was no point I know of that I became a Christian. I have always believed in God and accepted Jesus as my saviour, and I'm so happy about that.

You don't need to have a point in time where you were saved, just like you don't need to be baptised to be saved. You just need to know that you are saved.
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Thank you so much, I really appreciate it and I definitely feel better now. I think it just took seeing it in writing for it to really sink in.

Thanks as well Watchmen, I appreciate it.
 
Kakashi

Kakashi

Senior Member
#6
Jan 3, 2007
626
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#6
Yup, ditto for me. I used to worry about the exact same thing. Until one nigh God told me " What does it matter when? All that matters is that you are now" ^_^
 
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MaggieMye

Guest
#7
#7
I was baptized as a baby too (Catholic) and don't remember a thing of it. My moms says I yelled when the cold water hit my head. Without having made the choice and committment MYSELF, as an adult, I chose to be full-immersioned baptized, so that it would be ME making the choice. Parents cannot make spiritual choices for their kids. Each kids is given their own free will with which to choose. So, I would suggest you find a Bible-teaching church (one in which people actually bring their Bibles to church and read along in their own Bibles as the pastor is reading from his) and speak with them about this decision that you want to follow through on.
FYI...after I got baptized...the Word of God was MUCH easier to understand! Why? All things become new and He blesses obedience!
Maggie
 
MahogonySnail

MahogonySnail

Banned
#8
Jan 8, 2009
7,576
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#8
Parents cannot make spiritual choices for their kids
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Newborn male Israelites were taken by their parents and circumcised at 8 days old.

The bible says to
Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
And
Col 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.


That means the child should obey the spiritual guidance and direction the parents give him or her.



Each kids is given their own free will with which to choose.
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They may reject the faith if they wish later in life, but that doesn't mean the parents do not or cannot spiritual guide, encourage in the faith, and raise up the child in the faith. We may discount infant baptism as nothing, because of our rigid and narrow interpretation of scripture, but consider the honest prayers made to God on your behalf. It isn't all just our choice, and our decision, as mature thinking adults. God has His hands on our life before we were born, thank God that there are parents who do care about their child's spirituality at a young age, even infancy.
 
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chelsers

Guest
#9
#9
MaggieMye said:
I was baptized as a baby too (Catholic) and don't remember a thing of it. My moms says I yelled when the cold water hit my head. Without having made the choice and committment MYSELF, as an adult, I chose to be full-immersioned baptized, so that it would be ME making the choice. Parents cannot make spiritual choices for their kids. Each kids is given their own free will with which to choose. So, I would suggest you find a Bible-teaching church (one in which people actually bring their Bibles to church and read along in their own Bibles as the pastor is reading from his) and speak with them about this decision that you want to follow through on.
FYI...after I got baptized...the Word of God was MUCH easier to understand! Why? All things become new and He blesses obedience!
Maggie
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Thank you Maggie, I appreciate the advice. I'm looking for a good Bible based Church right now actually, but I do know I've already made the decision and I have been saved. I'd like to find a Church for worship and fellowship of course but I don't necessarily believe that I need to be baptised or find a Church to follow through with my decision because I know it's already been made. I was just curious if others had the same feeling I did about now knowing the exact moment for them and I guess I just needed to see it in writing for it to hit me that it didn't matter.

Thank you again!
 
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MaggieMye

Guest
#10
#10
Mahog: And what of the girl babies?? were they too circumsized? No! it was a DEDICATION!! And it was the parents that were held accountable for the circumcision of thier boy babies, not the babies themselves. But with baptism, it is the person themselves that is held accountable. What parent in the OT wanted their child to be cut off from Israel? That was the consequence of NOT circumcising their sons. What happens when a NT parent does not throw water on their infant? Nothing at all. Scripture says 'believe and be...baptized.' Read Joshua 5.
Maggie
 
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Lauren

Guest
#11
#11
Chelsea,
While some people do have a radical experience, others seemlessly ease into it with no real defining moment that they can point to. I look at it as just that God does what he has to to get your attention.

I know the day that I was saved, and it's probably because I was a complete atheist prior to that, so it was a 360 degree turnaround for me. Hmm, just a theory here -- perhaps the harder your heart is towards the idea of God, the more defined the moment is when you accept him.

I really wouldn't worry too much about it -- the end result is the same, so does it matter how you got there?
 
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chelsers

Guest
#12
#12
Lauren said:
Chelsea,
While some people do have a radical experience, others seemlessly ease into it with no real defining moment that they can point to. I look at it as just that God does what he has to to get your attention.

I know the day that I was saved, and it's probably because I was a complete atheist prior to that, so it was a 360 degree turnaround for me. Hmm, just a theory here -- perhaps the harder your heart is towards the idea of God, the more defined the moment is when you accept him.

I really wouldn't worry too much about it -- the end result is the same, so does it matter how you got there?
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Thanks Lauren and that dog is absolutely adorable. That's an interesting theory and it really does make sense, I never thought of it that way.
 
E

eric51

Banned
#13
May 3, 2009
246
2
0
#13
chelsers said:
I've been thinking about this topic actually for a while now. I notice people have concrete points in their lives where they were saved. They know the date, the age, where they were etc. I feel strange sometimes because I don't remember. I was raised in a Christian household with parents that were open and discussed faith with me. I remember praying as a child and as a teenager. In the past few years I've had those times where I got incredibly energized in my faith and other times when I seemed to be lackadaisical about it.

That said, I don't remember a specific moment.
Click to expand...
Faith in and confession of Christ is not a one-time event. Faith and verbal confession is necessary for one’s entire life. The Bible teaches that one cannot just profess faith once and then be eternally secure, as it were. One must live out this faith by a life of obedience and good works.

If you take Paul’s statements about Abraham being justified by faith in Galatians 3:6 and Romans 4:3–4 and put them together with James’s statement about Abraham being justified by his work of offering up Isaac in James 2:21, you must rightly conclude that salvation is a process with many points of justification along the path to heaven.

Be in Christ
 
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chelsers

Guest
#14
#14
eric51 said:
Faith in and confession of Christ is not a one-time event. Faith and verbal confession is necessary for one’s entire life. The Bible teaches that one cannot just profess faith once and then be eternally secure, as it were. One must live out this faith by a life of obedience and good works.

If you take Paul’s statements about Abraham being justified by faith in Galatians 3:6 and Romans 4:3–4 and put them together with James’s statement about Abraham being justified by his work of offering up Isaac in James 2:21, you must rightly conclude that salvation is a process with many points of justification along the path to heaven.

Be in Christ
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Well put Eric, thanks so much.
 
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