HOW TO EXPERIENCE SALVATION AND BECOME A CHRISTIAN
God loves you.
I know this truth is hard for many people to believe. That’s because God’s love is way beyond the type of human love we experience.
When we talk about God’s love, we can try to explain it, define it, and wrap it up nice and neat, but that won’t work. God’s love is messy. It’s perfect, but it’s messy.
Because of His love, grace reaches deep into the darkest of situations and shines a light of hope where otherwise there would be none.
God loves the unlovable. And so He sent His son, Jesus, to walk and breathe and live in a world that desperately needed a Savior.
Jesus didn’t own a home, and He didn’t always know where His next meal was coming from. But He loved and ministered to people just like you and me. He crossed social, racial, and economic barriers to touch every type of person, including the unlovable and the despised.
Jesus didn’t wait for people to get their act together and quit sinning before He healed them, touched them, and loved them. He met them where they were, right in the middle of their mess, and offered them forgiveness in spite of who they were and where they had been.
And He does the same today.
You’ve probably heard some of the following terms used as it relates to becoming a Christian:
“give your heart to Jesus”
“get saved”
“accept God’s gift of salvation”
“become a child of God”
“dedicate your life to God”
“accept Jesus as your Savior”
Maybe those terms sound foreign or confusing. So let me simplify it:
God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. He sent His son Jesus to die for you so that you could experience forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16, ESV
If you haven’t experienced Jesus’s saving grace, you can do it right now.
You don’t have to understand everything the Bible says. You don’t have to be able to pray beautiful prayers. You don’t have to know the words to Christian songs and hymns. And you don’t have to fix all the junk in your life.
God’s love reaches you right where you are. Even if you feel like there’s a million steps between you and God, He has already taken 999,999 steps to come to you. All you have to do is take 1 step – the step of faith and repentance.
So if you’re not a Christian, God can fix that, right here, right now.
“. . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9, NKJV
It’s time you stopped holding on to the junk in your life: the regrets, the past, and the emptiness.
Come to Him as your are.
Now.
In this moment.
Here’s a prayer you can pray to ask God to save you. Use this as an example as you let your own raw, honest words pour out to Him.
Dear Jesus,
I need You. I have past mistakes and sin in my life, and I’m asking You, Lord, to please forgive me. Forgive me for all of it . . . all of my sin, poor choices, and shortcomings. I am turning away from that old lifestyle and am asking You to wash me clean by your grace and redeeming love and make me new. I want You to be Lord of my life, because I realize without You, I am truly lost. Come into my heart and change me. I thank you, Jesus, for this free gift of salvation and your promise of eternal life. Please give me the peace and courage to follow You every day. Amen.
If you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God! You are His child. He has forgiven you, and you now have the promise of eternal life. But it doesn’t stop there.
It’s very important for you to grow in your faith. Salvation sets you free, but now God wants to begin to change your attitude and actions as He makes you new. He has a plan for your life, and He wants to show you that plan and guide you as you seek Him.
It’s important to connect to other Christians in a local church, to begin to read and study God’s word, and to begin to pray daily for God’s direction in your life.
Because you’re now saved, it doesn’t mean you’ll never sin again. In fact, you may battle temptations as never before. Satan is a real enemy and a deceiver.
Hold fast to you faith.
Seek Jesus daily.
Pray.
Read and study the Bible every day.
Surround yourself with other Christians who can encourage you.
If you accepted Christ as your Savior today, please send me an email. I would love to hear your story and follow up with some encouragement for you.
(Email address: sherri.autrey@gmail.com
Congratulations, dear one! Welcome to God’s family!