| A Heavenly Treasure from David Rich, January 23, 2026
2 Peter 1:10 – “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.”
If you’ve ever wrestled with knowing for certain that you are a believer and your name is written in the Book of Life, you are not alone. It’s part of the human condition and curse of the flesh to question things we cannot see and don’t have concrete proof of. Faith is, in fact, believing in things not seen. I sometimes find myself adrift in doubt. Yet I always end in prayer and reassured in my faith. This Heavenly Treasure is intended to hopefully strengthen your resolve and walk ever more boldly in your faith.
Any discussion on faith should and must start with the Bible. If you believe it is a flawed work written by mere mortals apart from God, it is almost impossible to have strong convictions. If you believe, as I do, that the Bible was through the hands of men, but that every word was God-breathed and guided, then belief in it’s contents is easy. Consider this, the Bible is a collective work of 66 books. It was written by 40 different authors over a span of 1500 years in 3 different languages and over 3 different continents. To leave it at that, it is not a big leap to conclude that it cannot be a congruent, consistent narrative. If you’ve ever played the childhood game of pass-it down the valley, you know what I mean. However, miraculously, there are 63,779 cross references throughout its pages. Think about that. That’s 63,779 times that one piece of writing references another piece of writing and almost 5X that number of cross references if you include common themes and words. Not to mention are there 1,817 prophesies (predictions) in the Bible that later, some many centuries later) that came to pass.
Then, add in the things written in the Bible that no none but God could have possibly known at the time it was written. Things like, the earth is a sphere (Isaiah 40:22), life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), and the stars were too numerous to be counted (Jeremiah 33:22). I could go on and on, but the foundation of our faith is the Bible itself.
But, most of all, we can know we are believers because of what has happened in our hearts. Ezekiel 36:26 states, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a new heart of flesh.” Our hearts are our assurance. Our hearts have been engineered to know God. This is what it literally means to be “born again.”
I can’t sing Amazing Grace without shedding a tear, I often can’t pray without getting a tingling feeling throughout my body, and I often fall flat on my knees crying out to God, whether in a prayer request or just giving thanks.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” So, if you believe IN YOUR HEART that Jesus is your Lord, you have the NEW heart. You could not, nor would not, say it otherwise.
Look no further than the 12 disciples gathered around the table at the Last Supper as written in Matthew 26:21-25. When Jesus says that one of them will betray Him, one by one, 11 of the 12 ask Jesus, “Lord, is it I?” Eleven of them recognized Jesus as Lord. When it came to Judas, he asked, Rabbi, is it I?” A clear and distinct recognition of who Jesus was. Judas had a heart of stone. To Judas, as it is with most Jews to this day, Jesus was just a Rabbi.
So, the answer to can you be sure you are a believer lies in these two simple questions: do you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, AND is Jesus your Lord?
I suspect I already know the answer.
Prayer
Father, because I am still confined by the restraints of human flesh, doubt is sometimes inevitable. But I KNOW Jesus is my Lord. I know this by faith, and I know this in my new heart. Thank you for loving me first. Loving me when I feel like I’m doing good, and loving me when I feel so far from you. Thank you for loving me all the time. Help me walk boldly in my conviction, because it is through this quiet confidence that others may also find the courage to be bold. Lord, I am yours. Humbly, gratefully, and eagerly awaiting my eternal home.
AMEN!
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