“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Some “proofs” that you belong to Christ include some of these things:
- You begin to hate your sin.
- You WANT God to change you.
- You are willing to learn to trust Him with everything and you want to give up your own control.
- You are willing to submit to Him – meaning, He is in charge now, not you. He is Lord of your life. He is the Master.
- You are willing to seek His will above your own.
- You realize His wisdom is much greater than yours.
- You see Him changing you over time to be more like Jesus.
- You see more and more fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23.
- You desire Him or you want to learn to desire Him more than anything else.
- Things of this world begin to be less and less important. You are willing to give up “friendship with the world” in order to have friendship with God.
- Things of God begin to be more and more important.
- You want to hear His voice and obey Him. You learn to recognize His voice and you want to be quick to do whatever He commands.
- You want to spend time with Him.
- You want to please God rather than people.
- You want to hear solid Bible teaching/preaching.
- You are willing to receive life-giving rebukes from God and from mature, godly, wise believers.
- You want to share this Greatest Treasure with many other people.
- You want everyone to know Jesus.
- You want to know God more and more.
- You are passionate about God and you want to be even more on fire for Him.
- You have His peace and joy in your heart.
- You want to love God above everything in life and love other people.
- If you see that you are putting anything above Christ in your life and heart, you are willing to get rid of it no matter how painful it might be.
- You are willing to be content with what you have because your contentment comes from Christ Jesus, not your circumstances.
- You are willing to learn to be thankful for suffering, knowing God is using that to prune, refine, and mature you.
- You want to praise and thank Him.
- You want to pray.
- You want to bless others.
- You want to take care of the poor, the oppressed, those who are hurting, etc…
- You want to love those who mistreat you.
- You want to forgive and not hold on to bitterness.
- The Bible is alive to you, you know God is speaking to you through it, and you want to read it.
- You can’t be comfortable living in sin.
- You want to humble yourself before God and become less and less so that God can become more and more in your life.
- God refines your motives and points out your selfishness, pride, self-righteousness, control, idolatry, jealousy, lust, disrespect, contempt, unforgiveness, bitterness, materialism, greed, etc… and you want to get rid of those things.
- It is His power that is changing you, not your own. He begins to radically change your heart, mind, and soul. You are willing and thankful to grant Him access to allow Him to change you.
- Your motives are just that you love God and want to please Him. Your motives are not fear or guilt – but LOVE.
Of course, this is a process – the process of sanctification.
None of us will be perfect until heaven. We grow from babies in Christ to mature adults in Him. But if we belong to Jesus, He will change us and we will respond to His voice. There are times when it is harder to hear Him. Sometimes that is because of sin in our lives – sometimes we are under the enemy’s attack or we are very weak/exhausted/sick. Sometimes we stumble, then we want to get right back up. In general, however, the direction of our lives is moving in the way that I described above.
I hope this might be helpful. 🙂