“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13 NIV)

I had doubts!  

After discovering from my aunt that my father had not died as my mother had told me but had only moved to another state, gotten remarried, and had other children that I finally met, we exchanged much information. All this was exciting. 

But, I had some serious doubts

I wasn’t totally convinced that I was related to them. Yes, I was completely sure they were related to my big brother David because the resemblance was unmistakable. But I didn’t look like any of them; I look more like my mother. And because David and I were a couple of years apart in age and because my mother and father had separated before I was born, I thought there could possibly have been someone else “involved” after they had split. So, to be sure, I asked one of them, my new sister Kathie, to take a DNA test, and I would, too. We got two DNA kits from Ancestory.com, and I sent mine to them as Mike French, from Lynden, Washington, and she sent hers to them as Kathie Swan from Anderson, Indiana. We gave no information other than our names and addresses. Several weeks later, the results came back, informing us we were closely related to each other! Yes, it was confirmed—we are siblings! After that test, there was no doubt left, and I wholeheartedly believed that we have the same father. 

God’s kids must not doubt!

My doubting experience reminds me that there are Christians, such as one of Jesus’ own disciples, famously known as Doubting Thomas, who had trouble believing (John 20:26). If Christians entertain doubts and don’t know for sure they are a member of God’s family with promised eternal life, they will be unstable, weak, and ineffective in their relationship with Him. 

Absolute assurance

God wants us to have absolute assurance of our relationship with Him and said, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13 NIV)

Those who have received Him have the right to become God’s children  

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13 ESV)

It’s through faith in Christ

“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Gal. 3:26

ESV)

Therefore

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39)