“Now that I’ve received Jesus as my Savior, what’s next?”
Here are four steps that will help you grow in your new faith and strengthen your assurance that God has made you a new person.
Please remember that none of these things I’m about to share with you make you a child of God. You were saved when, by faith, you accepted God’s gift of salvation. The following four steps are actions you take in response because of the gift Jesus has given you.
1. Go public with your faith.
From the very beginning of the church, nearly 2,000 years ago, Christ followers have chosen to be baptized. Simply put, baptism means being placed under water, then being raised out of it. On one hand, it seems pretty strange that God would want us to go through something like that, but as we look at what the Bible says, it makes perfect sense.
When you are baptized, you are personally demonstrating a picture of the good news you believed when you prayed to receive Jesus. Listen to how Paul describes this good news:
…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NIV)
When you experience baptism, you are going through the motions of death, burial, and resurrection. It is your way of letting everyone know that you have identified yourself with the one who died for you and was raised from the grave. When you are baptized, it is very clear who you follow. Religious leaders have come and gone, but only one person died for our sins and rose from his grave. In your baptism, you are giving him all the credit for your salvation.
I’ll say it one more time: Baptism doesn’t save you. It’s not even part of what saves you. You became God’s child when you believed God’s message and invited Jesus to become your Savior. Baptism is simply your way of publicly taking a stand for Jesus.
2. Spend time every day in a living book.
Have you ever wished you could have an interview with God? An experience where you could ask him the deepest questions about life and get answers? God has made a way for us to get those answers—they’re in a book we call the Bible. Many people are intimidated to read the Bible because they fear they’ll come across things they can’t understand. But don’t let that stop you.
Start with the stories of Jesus. There are four of them: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the first four books of the New Testament. To be sure, you’ll find some things that you won’t understand at first, but much of what you read will become very meaningful to you. And God makes you a promise: If you open your heart and mind to his Word, he will help you understand it.
Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”
Mark 4:24–25 (NLT)
(Note: When Jesus spoke these words, the Bible was not yet written, and the Word of God was spoken. Today, we have the written Word, but the same principle Jesus talked about still applies.)
3. Talk to God.
Could you walk into the White House today and have a conversation with the president? OK, scale it back—how about the governor? What about the mayor? If the answer to all of the above is an emphatic no, don’t let it bother you. You have permission to enter the very presence of God and talk with the Creator of the universe anytime! That’s what prayer is. You can tell him anything. Tell him about your fears, your pain, your hopes… whatever is on your mind. And you can ask him for whatever you need. Don’t ever feel like you’re troubling him—he has asked you to come.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT)
Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2 (NLT)
4. Worship, learn, and experience community with other Christ followers in a Bible-teaching church.
Following Jesus is a life filled with joy, but it’s also an uphill journey. We need the help and encouragement that comes from worshipping, listening to teaching, and sharing life with others who are on the same path. This is what the church was always meant to be about.
If you’re in the Wichita area, we’d love to invite you to take your spiritual journey with us. If you’re outside the area, I’d like to encourage you to find a church that believes and teaches the messages I’ve addressed in these pages. If our church office can be of any assistance in this, please let us know.