A twelve-year-old boy became a Christian during a revival. The following week at school, his friends questioned him about his experience. “Did you see a vision?” one friend asked. “Did you hear God speak?” asked another. The young boy answered no to all their questions. “Well, how did you know you were saved?” they asked. The boy searched for an answer, and finally, he said, “It’s like when you catch a fish, you can’t see the fish or hear the fish; you just feel him tugging on your line. I just felt God tugging on my heart.”

I will never forget the night I felt that tug as a teenager. Through the years, the memory of that encounter remains so vivid that it has sustained me during times of temptation and discouragement. Those who have never experienced being born again often struggle to understand the confidence we have in our relationship with God. But for those who have felt the tugging, we can say along with this twelve-year-old boy, and the Apostle Paul, “I know in Whom I have believed.” (2 Timothy 1:12)