The other thing is, if you think about it, everyone who is a Christian must have some self awareness that they are a Christian. If it is true that we are elected and saved and that belief is then the result or response the question still comes up for a person who asks, what should I do because I am concerned about my condition. You tell them to believe. You don't tell them that their asking you that shows they are elect and thus already saved so don't worry. You tell them to believe because even if you are a staunch Calvinist faith is the link that a rational being must have in order to have anything to do with God. And this is something you can be conscious of if present. It is required of you. If you call it a gift in the sense of God giving you the ability then fine. If you believe God brings it about in you that is also fine. But you have to believe that faith is what you do to connect to God. Anything else is a misunderstanding and can lead to a false gospel where you can have a type of faith in your election rather than a direct reliance on Christ and his work on your behalf.
Doubts can come in a believer's life for why they want to know if they are truly saved.
Like when under that commitment to follow Christ or a promise to not sin ever again, the saved believer is failing only because Jesus did not place confidence in our flesh to accomplish His work by the deed of the law. The Lord Jesus Christ had to make me aware of my vanity & foolishness to forgive me and set me free from all man made yokes of bondages to rest in Him as my Good Shepherd & Friend to help me resists sin and to follow Him daily in thought, word, and deed. Galatians 5:1-5 & Philippians 1:6-11 & John 6:28-29 & 1 John 3:3,8 & 2 Timothy 4:18 & Jude 1:24-25
Saved believers wresting with habitual sins would doubt they are saved when they cannot seem to overcome that sin and that is only because they are not looking to Jesus Christ to do that for them in helping them put away provisions for the flesh, and cast down wicked thoughts & desires to think on good things daily in running that race by faith in Jesus Christ Hebrews 12:1-2.
Like when others are deceived into thinking they need proof or a sign that they had received the Holy Spirit when He has been received by faith in Jesus Christ. Even newbies are led astray after believing the preaching of the cross from when they were saved, but because of other led astray Christians like the Pentecostals & Charismatics and yes, even Catholics along with Protestants can experience such a phenomenon... even among independent fundamental Baptist churches where they seek to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit by a sign of tongues or with :"evidence of tongues". It is an apostate calling Matthew 12:38-40 & 1 Timothy 4:1-2 & 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 & 2 Corinthians 13:5 & 1 John 4:1-6 that denies Him as having been received by faith in Jesus Christ Hebrews 11:1-2 & Galatians 3:14 & Galatians 3:26
It is no wonder who those that glory in themselves for having "tongues for private use" in assigning one of the benefits of this is the Holy Spirit praying for them out oud and so they wonder why the Holy Spirit is not praying for them? So doubt can arise when believers are not grounded in the word to recognize that God's gift of tongues is for God to speak unto the people 1 Corinthians 14:20-22 and not serve as a sign towards the believers for anything, let alone as proof as having received that baptism with the Holy Spirit especially when in all Bible versions in John 16:13, the Holy Spirit cannot speak from Himself at all but speaks only what He hears.
So... there are plenty of causes for why saved believer can have doubts, but that is why we are to be rooted in His words to know that we are complete in Christ and we can follow Him by faith in Jesus Christ to help us to follow Him daily.\
Colossians 2:5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
@ChristB4Us nailed it in these two statements. It is the argument John Owen gives when he says not to worry too much about the order in time of salvation.
You are receiving what has been done for you yet you must receive it in order for it to be done for you. And as Owen said, at this point you are not interested in whether you are elect, you need to believe.
I dare say that our believing in Jesus Christ is a manifested work of God for why no sign nor proof is needed. John 3:18-21
Anybody having trouble following Jesus, should learn His words for how He will help you to follow Him by trusting Him at His word that He is able to set you free from sin's power whereby it will not have dominion over us 1 John 2:1-2 & 1 John 1:3-9 & John 8:30-36 & 1 John 3:3 & 1 John 3:8 & 2 Timothy 4:18 & Jude 1:24-25
