Let’s assume that you have followed the Roman Road, confessed your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So, what do you do next? Do you just return to life the way it has always been for you? The most important thing you can do is to establish a routine of reading your Bible and praying daily. The Bible is God’s instruction book for our lives and in it He tells us His expectations of us and His promises for us. Praying is simply talking to God. How long would you expect to have a relationship if you never talked to the person with whom you are trying to establish one? You need to get into the habit of talking to God daily, about little things, big things, everything. If it bothers you, talk to God about it. If it puzzles you, talk to God about it. If it pleases you and makes you happy, talk to God about it and tell Him how thankful you are. Then, after you have done your talking, sit quietly and wait for Him to talk to you. Sometimes, He speaks to me through a Scripture verse that He puts into my mind or a song that I recall or sometimes He just speaks to me to be still and let Him calm me and prepare me for the day. Regardless, give God a chance to speak to you so you don’t always have a a one-way conversation.

Here are some Scripture verses that were in my devotional this morning to encourage you along the way.

Reading your Bible is a good start, but you also need to put His Word into your heart and apply it to your own life. I call that meditation on God’s Word. For example, the first verse above, as I think about it, I ponder what it means to continue to live my life in Him. What are the daily choices I make that would please Him? Are there changes that I need to make in order to walk more closely with Him?

Ultimately, your life as a Christian is still filled with choices. Every day, I make the choice to read a certain book or watch a certain show, based on what its effect might be on my faith in Jesus. I know that no matter where I go or what I do, Jesus is with me now and I want to choose to do things and see things that are pleasing to Him. The choices are still ours to make. That’s why we have to be rooted in Him, dependent on Him to help us make the right choices. Will you mess up? Probably. We all do. But God’s love is so big that He forgives again and again. We just have to be honest with Him and tell him that we sinned again and ask for His forgiveness again. Be careful with that, though. You can’t plan to sin knowing that you will then ask for forgiveness later. That’s like a premeditated act of defiance against God. The sins we continue to commit because we all have a sin nature are from choices that we make without thinking of consequences for ourselves, our spiritual relationship with God and for others. I have found that it helps to pause and pray before I make choices. The pause is brief, the prayer is brief, but if I feel any hesitation at all about the choice, I save the choice for later and wait for God to lead me in the direction He wants me to go.

The Christian walk is just that, a walk that you start again daily. Sometimes, you may go off on the wrong path (sin), but when you pray, God will lead you back to where you should be. One of the things that will help you to persevere as the Scripture above says is to find a good, Bible-believing church and attend regularly. How do you do that? Well, you visit the pastor beforehand and ask about some of the church’s basic beliefs. If they have a firm foundation on God’s Word, it would be a good place for you to plug into to be nurtured with other Christians, some of them new to the faith just like you. I can’t tell you what a good church looks like or believes because that is up to the leading of the Holy Spirit inside you. Yes! Another promise! Jesus said that when He returned to the Father, He would send a new comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will lead and guide us in all things. So, when you pray, asking for a church to call home, ask for the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit to help you find the place you should be. My husband and I have moved over 25 times (military family) and each time we move, the first thing we do is visit local churches and find one that meets our spiritual needs. When our children were at home (they are all grown now), we always chose a church that had programs for them because we knew it was important for them to be fed spiritually, too.

I hope that this rambling missive has been helpful and instructive. If you have questions, just ask me via the comments or my email address on the site. I have been where you are, many years ago, but I have been standing in your place, bewildered about how to move on with God. Just take the first step and He will meet you there and tell you what’s next.

God bless and keep each of you as you make choices that will glorify and honor our Lord and Savior.