The Christian community uses the term “saved” to imply a person has chosen to be a disciple of Jesus. Being saved is easy. You trust in what the Lord Christ has done, receive Him as Saviour, repent of your sins, and trust in nothing else, including your own “good works”. Getting saved is easy. The hard part is what follows when you become a Christian, when the Lord comes to live in you and then begins to work change in you. Sometimes it is quite difficult and other times, it is very rewarding.
Like anything you do, you should count the cost before you commit to something.
You should know what to expect if you become a Christian. It isn’t always easy. The Lord calls us to integrity, honesty, faithfulness, truthfulness, etc. If you become a Christian and then continue to live in sinful ways, the Holy Spirit will gently and convincingly prod your heart and bring you to a place of repentance. He is persistent. He won’t give up and sometimes that repentance can be difficult, especially if He brings you to confess your sins to others and make things right.
You must understand that if you become a Christian, you are no longer your own.
You have given yourself to the Lord, and He takes that commitment very seriously. He will not leave you in your sins. He will work in you and gradually bring you to a new place in your life. He will work bad habits and bad things out of you over the rest of your life. Of course, this does not mean that you will become perfect. It means that God will work in your heart to make you more like Jesus.
As a Christian, you’ll experience both answered prayers and unanswered prayers, but usually won’t understand why the answered prayers were answered and the unanswered prayers were unanswered. When you are weaker in your faith, you’ll look at stronger believers and wonder how they got where they are. When you are stronger in your faith, you’ll look at weaker believers and yearn to help pull them closer to God. You’ll change your mind about your beliefs on certain theological points multiple times. You’ll realize that’s OK because there are things for which we don’t have clear answers. God will seemingly disappear from certain periods of your life. It may be in ordinary times, times of joy or times of pain. But when you look back on those times, you’ll often realize that it was you who moved away from God, not God, who moved away from you.
Being a Christian means, you must seek Jesus to remain connected to Him.
At His last meal with the disciples Jesus told them, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If … This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:5-8.
As you celebrate this Thanksgiving weekend, remember to give thanks to God because he created us to be in relationship with Him for all of eternity. When we went our way in the garden, He allowed us to make our own choices but stood by us trying to guide us back to Him. Thank Jesus, who died so our sins would be forgiven and thank the Holy Spirit who comforts and guides us on our path to righteousness.