Assurance of Salvation
Have you ever struggled with assurance of your salvation? If you have, you can be certain that children do too. Today I want to help you, help them, have assurance of their salvation.
Assurance is important because it allows for peace-of-mind-thoughts like, “God loves me and will never leave me. He goes with me through every problem I face. God forgives me when I fail to please Him. My father accepts me. Jesus is preparing a home in Heaven for me.”
There are several things you can do to assure kids of their salvation, and you can find them on the blog at cefonline.com.
First, when you lead a child to Christ, show Bible verses that give a condition for being saved and then the salvation promise. For example, Acts 16:31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You can ask, did you believe? If he agrees, ask “Then what did God do?”     Help him put his name in the verse to personalize the truth. “If Alex believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, Alex will be saved.” This is God’s Word and God’s promises, and He never goes back on His promises.
Second, when a child receives Christ as Savior, let him tell others what happened. Don’t rush to tell for him. Give kids plenty of opportunities to testify at home, in class, or when out with friends. They need this reinforcement of their faith and God’s promise.
Third, when a kid expresses faith in Jesus, be sure YOU treat it as a real decision so as not to cast doubt in his mind. He might feel like his prayer wasn’t good enough. Assure him that God loves the simple faith of children, and He tells adults that we should be like that.
Fourth, show kids how to handle sin after salvation. Unconfessed or repeated sin can cause a person to doubt their salvation. They might have been taught that if they die without confessing sins at church, they won’t go to Heaven. Explain that when you do something wrong at home, your parents don’t kick you out of the house and disown you, but doing things wrong at home does hurt your relationship with them. In the same way, sin doesn’t get you kicked out of God’s family, but it hurts your relationship with Him. So, confess sin, receive forgiveness, and receive help to have more victory in that area of life. God has given us all that we need for victory, but we have to avail ourselves of that help, whether it be meditation on Scripture related to that sin, accountability to fellow believers, or counsel to discover why we look to that sin to fill our longings rather than looking to Jesus. 
Finally, for assurance of salvation, help a child look for evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life. When a child gets saved, there can be a significant change in attitude and actions, for which there’s no other explanation. Help him identify that change in attitude, no matter how significant, and remember what God did for him. 
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” There’s something in our God-given conscience that responds to truth and agrees with God’s Spirit. Help a kid recognize that joy in truth and commune with God in his heart over it. The Bible says it’s only by the Spirit of God we can confess Jesus is Lord.
We can also see fruit in a life possessed by the Holy Spirit. That fruit is listed in Galatians 5:22. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Someone could say, “I’m not a patient person, so I must not have the Holy Spirit and be saved.” I would ask that person, “Are you convicted when you don’t have patience? Are you willing to grow in that area? Can you see at least a little growth over time?” Without the Holy Spirit, a person wouldn’t even care, much less be growing. But it is prudent to question one’s salvation if there isn’t evidence of a surrendered, growing life. When talking to THAT person, don’t give reassurance, start fresh and go through the plan of salvation.
For a reminder on these points of assurance of salvation for children, go to the blog on this topic at cefonline.com.