Q: I made the decision to follow Jesus this week, but what do I do when I go home? No one in my family is a Christian and I have no Christian friends. I don’t know how to even live for God. How can I live and grow as a Christian?
A: Wow. That’s tough. First of all, let me tell you that you are not alone. Jesus will follow you home, even though I can’t. “I [Jesus] am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) I can and will, however, pray for you and give you some tools to help.
So where do you start now in following Christ? If you’ve read the answer to “How can I be a Christian?” and “How can I know I’m really saved?”, you’ve read that your life will change when you trust Jesus for Salvation.
So how does it change? How do we know what to change? “Be imitators of God as dear children.” (Ephesians 5:1) According to this, we are to act like God and live as He would. How can we know what God is like and how to live like Him? By reading the Bible and obeying what we read! In learning to live for God, we can look to Jesus who is our ultimate example. He was God in the flesh and lived a perfect life of obedience to the Father. Hebrews 4:15 says “He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus knows what it’s like to live on earth and be tempted to sin. He knows what it’s like to feel alone in following God. He’s gone through every pain and rejection and betrayal we go through, so He can perfectly sympathize with our weaknesses. Turn to Him for the strength, desire, and knowledge to live for Him!
Just like a baby needs milk to grow, Christians need the Bible. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.” (2 Peter 2:1) When we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin and show us how we can please God with our lives. He will teach us how to put our music, movies, TV, friends, etc. under God’s control. A great way to study the Bible is by reading a chapter or two every day and writing down one thing God teaches you through what you read and how you can live that out.
Another important step to growing as a Christian is by talking to God in prayer. “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3) God listens and answers when we pray to Him! You don’t have to worry about having the right words when you pray to God. Just talk to Him as you would a friend. He wants to hear from you!
A third final step for growth is finding a good church and making good Christian friends. “And let us not forsake meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage each other...” (Hebrews 10:24-25) God knew we would need encouragement to keep living for Him, so He created the church. Church is a place where we can learn more about God as we hear His Word taught; make Christian friends who will encourage us to live for Him; serve God; praise and worship God; and pray for others and be prayed for ourselves. I know it will not always be possible to get to a church if your parents won’t take you, but try to find someone who will.
Is this how we are saved? By reading our Bible and trying to obey it, praying, and going to church? No! It’s only by trusting Jesus. “For by grace [God’s kindness] you have been saved through faith [trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sin], and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God [we don’t save ourselves; He has already done all the work necessary for Salvation]-not of works lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) But then look what happens AFTER you trust Jesus- “For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works…” (Ephesians 2:10)
Once we trust Jesus for Salvation, we begin to walk like him. Have you ever seen a baby learn to walk? This last year, I got the chance to nanny for a baby who learned to walk. When he took his first step, I didn’t scream and cheer, then tell him to stop trying to walk and go back to crawling. I encouraged him to keep trying to walk! He needed to be encouraged to keep learning how to walk, not how to go back to crawling. That’s what I encourage you to do!
So many people will try to tell you that the Christian walk or life is just one step-trusting Jesus for Salvation. They’ll try to tell you that you just need to pray a prayer and then you keep living your life however you were living before. But just like a baby learning to walk doesn’t just take one step and then go back to crawling, we have to keep taking steps to become more and more like Jesus. And just like a baby, we’ll fall sometimes, but should we stay down? No! Like a baby, we have to get back up! We can’t be perfect! That’s why we need Jesus to be perfect for us. But once we’ve trusted Jesus for Salvation, He gives us the strength to become more holy like Him.
How does He do this? Through the power of the Holy Spirit! When we trust Jesus for Salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. I John 4:13 says, "By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." The Holy Spirit gives us the power and desire to obey God. He's the one who does the work in us, making us more like Jesus. When we realize just how great His love is for us and how it drove Him to make the ultimate sacrifice for us, loving Him becomes easier. Loving Him in action looks like loving the people He made, and loving the people He made looks like obeying His commands. But it all starts with what God does for us. We don't love God and others and obey Him to become a Christian and get to heaven; we love Him because He has saved us already. We are saved by trusting that Jesus' death on the cross was enough to get us to heaven, THEN we are driven to love God and live to please Him.
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