Here is a quick guide of which steps you need to take after you give your life to Christ!
Welcome to your new life with Christ! Welcome to a life of blessing, a life with filled with love, and so much peace! Although that all sounds good, we also have to remember that there's an adversary named the devil who doesn't want us to experience the goodness of God. Every new believer is like a baby plant that has just been planted in the soil of life. They need to be equipped with the right nutrients (knowledge) and tools to withstand against the schemes and plots of the devil. The Bible says that people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6 NKJV) so the more knowledge we get on how to live properly for God, the better off we will be in life! I've listed three main points on how to live for God for new believers.
Find a church - surround yourself with Godly people
God designed the Christian walk to be done within the context of community. He never made us to be alone or isolated. If you look throughout the Bible, there are many occurrences were God allowed people to live in community. In the beginning, Adam lived with Eve (Genesis 2). When David was running from Saul in the wilderness (1 Samuel 22:1-2), he had 400 men with him. Even Jesus lived in the context of community. He was constantly surrounded by His 12 disciples! In order to properly live for God, it's a requirement that we live in community. That's where the church comes in! The church is a place where everyone has the common goal of getting closer to God. The church is a community of people who have decided to follow Jesus Christ. Not all churches are the same, so you can't particularly say that church isn't for you. It could be that specific church you tried out wasn't the right fit, or perhaps, God wanted you to be poured into by a pastor that fits you better.
As a new believer it's also important to surround yourself with Godly people. The people that you used to hang around with prior to being saved might not be ideal to spend the majority of your time with. We need to surround ourselves with people who have the same faith in order to help us grow closer to God. "You are the company you keep" is a famous quote that holds true to everybody. You can't expect to live right for God when you are still hanging around people who do drugs or constantly talking about things that aren't Godly. Even people who aren't positive can have a negative effect on your relationship with God! Every new believer goes through the phase when they are on fire for God and want to save every one of their friends, but it's so important to remember that that's not our job! Our job is to love people and pray for the salvation of people. We will go crazy trying to save a friend or family member when Jesus Christ is the only One who can do it. Let's leave it to Him.
It's relationship NOT religion! Focus on your relationship with God
This is one of the biggest things a new believer needs to know. God created us to live in relationship with Him. Christianity is NOT religion. Religion can be defined as a set of rules to follow in order to get closer to his or her god. Christianity is not following a set of rules, but following a person. That person is JESUS! Jesus was completely man and completely God. The closer we get to Jesus, the more like God we become. We start to inherit His characteristics. All of a sudden we become more patient, more loving to our neighbor, we start to give more. God even starts to change our desires! We go from wanting to party all the time to wanting spend more time in the house. He starts giving us desires to want to know Him more and go to church more.
There are many ways to strengthen your relationship with God. One key thing is to know who God is for yourself! Everyone experiences God differently, so it's important to get into the Bible and do some reading. No matter what you read, God can speak something specific to you. For every new believer, start reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. These 4 books make up the Gospels. In these books, we learn about the life of Jesus and all the miraculous works He did. Another way to get in your Bible is by downloading the Bible app and following a Bible reading plan. There's so many different plans to follow to help you read and understand the Bible. Maybe you want to learn more about different ways God brings peace to you, maybe you want to be more loving to people, there's so many different plans out there, so find one that's perfect for you!
Another way to get closer to God is to develop a prayer life. The book of Daniel is a story of a Hebrew man named Daniel who was known for his excellence. What made Daniel so excellent is that he was a man of prayer. He prayed 3 times a day (Daniel 6:10 NKJV). By having such a strong prayer life, Daniel was transformed into a man of excellence known by everyone in his region. God uses prayer to develop us. Prayer changes our character and it causes our mind and actions to align with Him. I can write an entire different blog about prayer and it's impact, (which I probably will soon) but the key to developing your prayer life it to just do it! It doesn't have to be elaborate or in a special place. Prayer is simply our conversation with God.
You are not perfect you will make mistakes!
There was only one person and will only be one perfect person, and that's JESUS! No one could live a perfect life. No one could live a sinless life, and that's exactly why God sent His only Son to do it or us. In this walk with God, you will stumble, you will fall, you will want to give up on God, but the beautiful thing about being in relationship with God is no matter how much we fall or want to quit, GOD STILL LOVES US! His love for us in unconditional. His love doesn't change based on how we will. His love is never failing. When we stumble, it's important to know how to handle it. The first and most important thing we can do when we fall into sin is to REPENT! Repentance doesn't mean to feel sorry for yourself and beat yourself up for making a mistake. True repentance is acknowledging you did wrong, and deciding in your mind to not do it again! The devil can use our mistakes to cause us to feel shameful or even condemned.
The second thing to know are the tactics of the devil. He uses shame and condemnation to keep us in a place of feeling sorry for ourselves which causes us to not receive love from God. It's hard to receive love and forgiveness from God when the only thing you can think about is the fact you slipped up or made a mistake. God sent Jesus to deal with past present and even future sins! It's all covered. We have to do our part by repenting and praying to God. That establishes a connection with God. When we are connecting with God we are the most powerful people in the world! That's how we can put a stop to the devils tactics of keeping us in shame. The devil has as much power as we give him, so lets take back our peace of mind and put a stop to his schemes!
I hope these three points help you in your walk with Christ! The Christian walk isn't an easy walk, but with help and the right knowledge, it makes things a lot easier!
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