Many people want to feel saved before they have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their own Saviour.
A woman who was making this mistake invited a preacher to tea. When she handed him a cup of tea he made no effort to take it, but said, “I don’t feel as if I had had a cup of tea.” She thought him very strange, but politeness kept her from commenting. She only said again, “Here is a cup of tea for you, Mr. Howe.”
He said again, “But I don’t feel it.”
The woman began to feel a little worried by his strange conduct and said to him, “But Mr. Howe, you cannot feel that you have had a cup of tea until you have received it. Take it, drink it down, and then you will feel you have had a cup of tea.” He replied, “And how can you feel saved, until you have received salvation? Receive Christ, and then you may know you are saved.” She saw her mistake. She had been “putting the cart before the horse”—she had been confusing cause and effect. In Christian things she had been acting in such a way that, when the preacher did so in human things, she thought him to be going out of his mind. The preacher’s little illustration showed her her mistake. She trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, and then she knew she was saved. Many who have believed on the Lord Jesus as their Saviour are not sure of their salvation because, as they say, “I don’t feel saved.”
They make the mistake of not seeing that the believer is saved by faith.
Feelings are internal, and they change with the weather, one’s state of health, the immediate circumstances and a thousand and one things.
Faith is like an anchor; it lays hold upon an object outside of itself altogether, even the Lord Jesus as Saviour. Who would think of dropping an anchor inside the hold of a ship? No, an anchor is always cast outside the ship.
We have something far, far better than our changing feelings for the assurance of salvation. We have the undying, unchanging word of God.
The way of blessing is not feel saved and believe, but believe and be saved.