I believe in Jesus as my personal savior who died for all my sins, and when I really think about it, I’m sure of it. But I still get attacked in my mind about whether I actually believe it, which concerns me. I do believe in Jesus, yet these thoughts make me worried and uncertain at times. I believe they’re lies from the devil, but how can I get rid of those thoughts and be more certain about my salvation in my mind?
In 2 Cor. 10:3-5 Paul said we have been given divine weapons with which to combat this kind of attack.
He wrote, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Our knowledge of God is our divine weapon. It’s contained in His word. For instance, 1 Tim. 2:3-4 tells us God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Ephesians 2:8-9 says we are saved by grace through faith, and the faith is not of ourselves but is a gift from God. That means when we asked God to save us, He agreed, and He gifted us with the faith to believe we are saved. That’s the knowledge of God we have.
The doubts that come into your mind are from the enemy who is trying to get you to deny this. But you know God wants you to be saved and gave you the faith to believe you are saved. Therefore, you know the doubt you sometimes feel is not real. It’s a pretension that has set itself up against your knowledge of God. You can demolish this pretension and take the thought captive by repeating Ephesians 2:8-9. This makes the thought in your mind obedient to what the Lord has done for you.
This is the model Jesus gave us in the wilderness temptation (Matt. 4:1-11) when He used nothing but scripture to defeat each of Satan’s attacks and send him packing. James 4:7 says if we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil he will also flee from us, just like he fled from Jesus.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)