Mary Grobe - Missing I'm Saved--Now What?
By Linda Sedrick Pearson
Thank God, you took the right path and accepted Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior! However, at this point you may be a little uncertain as to what you should do next.
Realize where you are in the plan of salvation. You are a "babe" in Christ. I Corinthians 3:1-2 states, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
What does that mean? Let's take for an example a newborn baby. When that baby first comes into this world it doesn't know how to talk, crawl, walk, or eat. "Baby" doesn't even know how to eat; and even if it did, it doesn't yet have teeth and can only take milk specially prepared for him or her. "Baby" has to be taught first how to feed on this specially prepared milk. The Bible is a Christian's specially prepared "milk of the Word." God took great care in preparing this milk for His babes. So what do you do now?
Step one would be to obtain a Bible--God's Holy Word and read it. If you don't know where to start reading, start with the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Why? Because this will give you a good look at the Savior Jesus Christ. You will learn what He suffered, how tender His heart, and how loving and caring our God, the Father is for you.
Now, you know how to feed yourself the milk (reading the Bible), the next step is to learn how to talk. Prayer is a wonderful gift God has given to His "babes." There is no mysterious secret to prayer. Prayer is having a conversation with God. This can be done through thought (thinking within yourself) or speaking out loud. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to you to guide you and tell you what to speak to Him. Tell God what is in your heart. He wants to talk with you. He loves to hear your praise. He wants you to tell Him about your troubles, fears, doubts. You don't have to be in a special place or certain position (physically) to talk with God. you can talk to Him kneeling on the floor, laying on the bed, driving in your car, when you are at work. The place, time and position doesn't matter. What matters is that you do talk to God. Still afraid and concerned about starting a conversation with God? Jesus left us an example in the LORD's Prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.)
Now, you know how to feed yourself (read the Bible) and how to talk (pray). It's time to learn to crawl and walk. You learn to walk one step at a time. You have already taken your first two steps by learning to feed and to talk. Learning to walk is a never-ending lesson. To be able to walk a Christian walk you must continue to read and study the Bible daily. You must continue to pray constantly.
There is one thing that will be a tremendous help to you when learning to walk. Pray for God to send you someone who has been a Christian for a while. Pray that this will be a Christian that earnestly walks the walk of a true follower of Christ. This Christian will take you under his or her wing and will help you learn. He or she will hold your hand when you don't have the strength to take the next step. Remember, you are a baby. A baby, when first learning to walk, needs to know that there is someone in front of them to help keep them from falling. Or, if "Baby" does fall, someone will be there to pick them up and comfort them and give them the courage to try again. You need someone like that to help you too. Pray earnestly for this person and God will send them to you.
May God keep you, protect you, and lead you.
† © 2003 GOD