How Do I Start a
Relationship with Jesus?
Taking the next step in your faith
How to Begin
How do you begin a relationship with Jesus Christ? It’s as simple as coming to Him with this simple prayer and meaning it in your heart. It’s about starting a relationship!
“God, I know that I’m a sinner, and for that I’m truly sorry. I confess my sins before You, and I repent of them all and I ask for Your forgiveness. Jesus, I believe that you are God’s only begotten Son. I believe that you laid down Your place in heaven to be born just like me. You lived a perfect life, and You died on the cross to pay my sin debt, and the sin debt of all of mankind, in full. I accept Your perfect sacrifice as payment in full for all my sins. I believe God raised You from the dead on the third day and You now sit at God’s right-hand side in Heaven waiting for the chance to come back here and to bring me home to heaven to be with You. Thank You Lord! Amen!”
That’s it. There is nothing else you need to do to be saved. There are some things you should do next, but your salvation is secure. It can never be taken away. You can never lose it. God will never love you more than He does today and He will never love you less.
Now that you are saved, what are your next steps?
What Now?
1. Get in the Bible.
Find a good version and get reading. I recommend a good New King James version. One of the main things that keeps people away from Christianity is all the things they’ve heard that the Bible said. Most of those things aren’t true. Read it for yourself. You will be blown away. I like to start at Matthew and then work my way straight through to Revelation. Reading the Old Testament is very rewarding, but a little slower to do. For a new believer, I would start first with the Matthew and work my way through the New Testament first. The book of Ephesians is one of my favorites. The truth of grace is stated so well in Ephesians. Romans is also an amazing place to camp out and spend some time understanding the freedom that is yours. There may be no better place in the world to really understand the human condition than the book of Romans. The Psalms in the Old Testament are an amazing group of promises and gifts to you. You can read them over and over again and find something new every time. Hold onto God’s promises and watch Him change your life.
2. Find a good Bible believing church.
You can test what they say by what is in your Bible if you have a question. Any church that you walk into that starts dancing around what the Bible says and won’t just say, “yes what the Bible says is true,” isn’t worth your time. If you find a church that never mentions Jesus, that’s probably not the place for you. If you find a church that preaches works (earning your way to heaven) from the pulpit, that isn’t the church for you. Jesus was both grace and truth. That is what you are looking for. You want a church that isn’t afraid to deal with right and wrong, AND shows the love of Christ every day. Find a place you can grow in your relationship with God. God will give you peace about which church you should join and which churches you should stay away from. The test is the Bible. Any church that adds something to the Bible, pulls stuff out of the Bible or generally denies or apologizes for what the Bible says, stay away from.
3. You need to get water baptized.
No, you don’t need to get water baptized to be saved. You’re already saved. But water baptism is the next step after getting saved. You will find a debate among some people about immersion verses sprinkling. The Bible says immersion. It’s symbolic of Jesus death and resurrection, and besides, that’s how Jesus was baptized.
4. Don’t let Christians spoil your relationship with Christ.
People are messy imperfect creatures. Getting saved fixes eternity, but it doesn’t fix people being themselves. Find a good church family and get involved, but don’t let the bad apples ruin your relationship. You wouldn’t quit every job where 100% of the people weren’t perfect. You wouldn’t quit rooting for your favorite team just because some of the other fans are obnoxious. Don’t let other people negatively impact your relationship with Jesus. I can’t control other people, and I’m not going to try. But I also won’t let anyone else steal my joy and my relationship with the Lord. That’s between them and Jesus, not between me and Him.
5. Don’t ever forget how much you are loved and the gift of grace that is yours!
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