Christian: Living your life for God

Salvation Prayer (sample)

Keep in mind there is no set prayer to be "born again". Follow these simple guidelines:

1. Admit your sin and ask for his forgiveness.

2. Acknowledge that Jesus is God's son, he died for your sins, and conquered death through his resurrection.

3. Ask God to come into your life as your Lord and Saviour.

4. Ask him to help guide your life through the Holy Spirit.

But most importantly DO NOT say OR take this prayer lightly. Because it says in 1 John 2:4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

The first misconception I need to put to rest is that becoming a Christian and accepting God into your life doesn't mean that all of you problems will magically disappear. What you will find is that with God in your life that you don't have to face anything alone, He is always with you. Now in some aspects your troubles may disappear with your change in lifestyle. Not wanting to participate in some activities that you would have before is a good example of that. The best way to gage what God is doing in your life is to take a look back to see what your life was like before asking him to be your Lord and Savior. Another common mistake new Believers make is thinking that the desire to do anything sinful is gone once you become a Christian. God gave us all free will and you will still have that free will, the difference is hopefully that you will make better choices based on your faith and love for God. Keep in mind anyone can CHOOSE to sin, even Christians. The hope is that when you turn your life over to God that you will no longer have the desire to make that bad decision. It is because we have free will that we can see how God is working in our lives as we start to choose not to do sinful things. And the stronger we grow in our walk with Christ, the easier it is to make the right decisions. The Holy Spirit will help guide you in making the right decisions and if he is convicting you about a choice you are making you will know it because of the uneasy feeling you will get. If something you are considering doing gives you pause, I would say that you are being convicted by the Holy Spirit telling you that maybe you shouldn't be doing whatever it is that you feel uneasy about.

Even though you can accept Christ anywhere and be granted his forgiveness, as believers we need to gather and worship and rejoice together so I recommend getting involved in a good Bible-based Church. This will not only put you in a setting with like-minded people but it will be a great place for you to learn and start to grow your relationship with God. Daily prayer and bible study is a must, especially for the newly "born again". Studying God's word and making an effort to pray everyday not only to make requests but to give thanks for all the blessings we enjoy everyday. Too many people make a habit of only praying when they are in need of something. We must be conscious to make sure we also give thanks to God for all of the incredible things he does for us.

We all have a lot to be thankful for even if it isn't always obvious to us. We have family, friends, pets, spouses, and most importantly God's love for us to be thankful for everyday. It is easy to forget the truly important things we are blessed with because of the "life circumstances" that always seem to take center stage. Financial problems, material possessions that we seem to give so much value to, unfortunate personal or business relationships, with so much going on in our world today it is really easy to find a multitude of things to pray to God about. With that being the case it makes it all the more easy for us to remember to be thankful for the things we do have. God is like your best friend that you tell everything to, the good and the bad. If you approach your prayer life with this mentality you are already going to be way ahead of the game.

Now as Christians we are called on to spread to God's word to the unbelievers and this is a touchy subject with most any Christian. For some reason it is very hard for us to talk about our faith to others, even our own family. The thing to remember is you aren't trying to force anyone to believe. We are only called to tell people about God's love, if they choose not to believe it or accept it that is not your failure. You have done what you were supposed to do by just informing them. You may experience a lot of people will just tune you out, that is ok too. Remember making the effort is what it is all about. But we will talk about the "Great Commission" later. As odd as this may sound it has been found that sometimes it is the newly saved that make the best witnesses. The enthusiasm and vigor that they share their experience with is often unmatched even by Pastor's themselves. Nothing is more gratifying than to see the way that accepting God into your life makes some people just absolutely glow.

Ok, you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are ready to start living your life for Christ. Now what? Well as I touched on earlier the first thing is to get involved in a good bible-based Church. Although the Bible doesn't say you HAVE to go to Church it does say that believers should gather together and worship and learn about His love for us all. The footer on this page (or any page on my site) will take you directly to the homepage of my Church, The Wesleyan Church. It is a good solid bible-based church and you can find one in your local area as well as a host of other fine bible based churches. Like anything else you do in life it pays to do your homework when picking a church to attend. You have to have a level of comfortableness and a sense of belonging similar to family. You may find that it might mean going to a church that doesn't happen to be the closest one to where you live. I know this from experience, there is a Wesleyan church 2 blocks from my house, but I go to one that is about 12 miles away because it is the Church I grew up in. The people there really seem like family and quite honestly a lot of them are. Another important factor when choosing your church home is a sense of feeling connected with the Pastor. A feeling of being preached "to" and not "at". Again I am fortunate in this aspect as I have known of my Pastor since he and I were kids. So again that sense of family is very strong. You may have to attend several different churches to find the one that suits you best.

Another important thing to do as a new Christian is to get involved in Sunday School, weekly Bible Study, or both. The more time you can spend reading, discussing, and learning about the word of God the stronger your walk with him become. Knowledge is power and a good knowledge of the Bible and Jesus' teachings is essential to Christians whether newly saved or a believer of 50 years. Not only is it a great way to become closer to God, but it will also help when people start to ask you questions about why you believe what you do......and believe me they will ask! Don't shy away from the questions and always remember never be afraid to say "I don't know, but I will find out and get back to you". No one expects any Christian to know everything and there is no shame in admiting that you don't have all the answers but are willing to do everything you can to find out what they want to know. Even non-believers will respect that. As a new believer you may have to say that a lot in the beginning. That is why it is even more important that you get involved in the activities I talked about earlier. If the Church you choose doesn't have any small Bible study groups for whatever reason, do what we did at my church and start one of your own. We have a small bible study just for men. We can get together as men of the Church and study God's word and talk about things that men may not be comfortable talking about in front of anyone else except other men. It has been a great blessing to us and to our little church as it allows us to be an example for the young men at our church by letting them see with their own eyes how as men of the church we live our lives. Not only through Bible study, but how to be good husbands, fathers, providers, listeners, and how to be charitable. We sponsor certain events throughout the year, some with, but some without any recognition at all. Our main goal is to help the young men of our church to understand that helping others isn't something you do just to be patted on the back. For me some of the best deeds we do for our church are the anonymous ones.

And believe it or not being a Christian and living your life for God is just that simple. I will be adding to this page as time goes on, maybe making it several pages, and I want you to know that I am always available for your questions. Just use the form on the Contact page to let me know what subjects you would like covered in this section or if you have any questions. I thank you for visiting my site and sincerely hope that God blesses you for all the days or your life here and when you meet him in Heaven.

Thank you,

Charles (Jody) May

ChristianityConnection.com

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