If you are like most individuals, there will inevitably come a time in your life when you question your own salvation. I do not believe that it is abnormal to harbor such sentiments for a short while. I am confident that most Christians have experienced this at some point along the walk of life. Doubt can come as the result of a number of personal experiences, but when such dark thoughts arise we must remember that God has given us an answer to assuage any uncertainty. He has given us measuring rods by which to gauge if one has truly been regenerated. Most notably:

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments." (1 John 2:3)

It sounds elementary, but presented here is proof of conversion. If one is truly a child of God, he will keep God’s commands. Matthew Henry puts it this way:

"A careful conscientious obedience to his commands shows that the apprehension and knowledge of these things are graciously impressed upon the soul; and therefore it must follow in the reverse that he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

One might then ask what God’s commands are. It could be answered thus:

"But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’" (Matt 22:34-40)

Love is the first and greatest thing God demands of us. If we are obedient in that, then we have true faith. However, if we obey God’s commands for the sole purpose of selfish pride (just as the Pharisees did) then we do not have the love of God and we are hypocrites and will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 22:13-15).

If you obey God because you love him, then you can have the assurance of your salvation. So the next time you have lingering doubt about your eternal destiny, take comfort in knowing the simple fact that you have a love for God is evidence that the Lord has taken away your stony heart and has given you a heart of flesh (Ez 11:19).