THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I FIRST BECAME A CHRISTIAN
Before we dive into this topic, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
I hope everyone enjoyed his/her break. 2018 was great, I pray 2019 will be greater.
It would be eight years this year since I proclaimed Jesus as my savior and chose to go on this journey with him, and I would be sharing some things I have learnt during those years that I wish I knew before I started the journey.
1. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life all your problems, struggle and habits don't just disappear over night.
For me personally I grew up with the theory that Christians are perfect people, they don't have worries and are saints. I had this notion that once you obey Jesus and keep his commandments whatever you ask of him he will do for you. For example if you need a job, car, money... whatever, all you have to do is pray and it will for sure be answered. Now before y'all come at me, yes God does answer prayers, he his our ever present help in times of need. But what happens when we pray and nothing happens? Does he still remain our savior and ever present help in our time of need? My point is when you signed up to become a christian, you signed up to become Christ-like, to seek ye first the kingdom of God and every other thing comes after, to die to yourself and rise with Christ. Jesus Christ comes into our lives to save us and make us like him and not to just solve all our problems, will he do that? absolutely, he is a loving father and takes care of his own but our one and most important job is to love him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
2. Becoming a Christian is not a day thing.
Okay so first thing first this journey is not a joke (is not a joking stuff fam!). If my (our) life were so great and perfect we would not have decided we needed a savior and accepted Christ. I understand the excitement and subtle pressure that we feel when we are new Christians, for me I wanted and expected everything to change ASAP. I forgot that the life and habits I had formed for years wouldn't just leave me because I gave my life to Jesus yesterday afternoon. But then I slowly began to realize it is a journey and a process and what I realized is that God loves the process because its in that process that I(you) are formed. And this leads me to my next point.
3. Be Graceful to Yourself.
I honestly wish I knew this earlier. I beat myself up over so many things that I shouldn't have. When I decided I wanted Jesus to save me from my bondage of pornography, it was really a process for me. I would go months without indulging in it and then one fall will set me back so much that it would take Jesus to pull me back up again. OR times when I would be so diligent in reading my bible and doing all the godly things I knew how to do and then a little break would really pull me back. I guess I didn't understand then that the only reason why I was even able to love and follow Jesus was because he was and is still helping me love and pursue him. So understanding that fixing my gaze on Jesus continually is the major key even in times when I fall, fixing my eyes on him is seriously the best thing that can ever happen to me. Does that mean we take his grace for granted? Absolutely not, but being graceful to yourself even when you seem to have fallen short of your vows to Jesus.
4. The Church is really like a Hospital.
When I came to the realization of this, it honestly made some things very easy for me. Things like holing offense against my fellow church family. 99.9% of people that go to the hospital go because they need help. Now some patients that are in the hospital are responding to treatment and some aren't, some patient even come in to see the doctor to ask for help but end up not following the doctors order. In as much as all these happen, some of the patients that are responding, respond at different pace. So not every christian is actually chasing after Christ after all and for those who are, we have to be graceful enough to know that we are all on different journey and are responding to Christ at different pace. So as we encounter all the different parts of the church body lets remember to choose to love all the parts equally even when its difficult and be gracious. Be the reflection of Christ that you are.
5. Take it Slow and Steady.
When I started this journey I was so pumped that I wanted to finish reading the bible as fast as I could, I wanted all my questions to be answered, I wanted to read all the gospel books I could find. And all these things aren't necessarily bad, but I was going too fast and wasn't focusing on the main thing "My relationship with Jesus". So my advise will be take it slow and steady, enjoy Jesus and enjoy the process.
6. Christ Chastises so be ready to be Chastised.
It's obvious we looked and acted nothing like Christ before we invited him into our life, so in order to become Christ-like, we are going to need to actually allow him in into every area of our life so he can make us more like him. And sometimes this can look like Christ chastising us, so instead of pulling back, allow him and ask him for the strength and will to conform to his will and be more like him.
7. My heart will not always feel like its burning for Jesus and that's Okay.
For the longest time I always based how much I loved Jesus and how much he loved me on how great my feeling were, so whenever I went through times when my heart wasn't necessarily on fire for him I didn't think I was good enough for him or deserving of his love. But then I realized my feelings doesn't equal my faith in Jesus. And my feeling should definitely not determine my love for Jesus or his undying love for me. FAITH OVER FEELINGS (don't remember where I saw that). Because you don't feel like it does not mean Jesus loves you less so in those moment instead of pulling away, stay there with him and seek for him.
8. You need to find your sisterhood or brotherhood to run this race with.
I can not emphasize this enough. I get it, this christian thing is a personal relationship with Jesus but I believe to run this race effectively you need people with the same passion and vision for Christ alongside you. There would be times when you will need to rely on the strength and faith of your brother and sister to keep pushing and vice versa. So I strongly advise surrounding yourselves with other followers of Christ and keep pushing.
9. Find a mentor and someone you can also pour into.
You need someone that you can look up to and also learn from. You have people who have already journeyed through somethings you will come across so the earlier you get the wisdom from them the better for you. And as you get filled up, fill people up to.
I hope this blesses or encouraged someone. If you have any other points, i'll love to hear it so feel free to comment. Until next time. Peace.
I hope everyone enjoyed his/her break. 2018 was great, I pray 2019 will be greater.
It would be eight years this year since I proclaimed Jesus as my savior and chose to go on this journey with him, and I would be sharing some things I have learnt during those years that I wish I knew before I started the journey.
1. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life all your problems, struggle and habits don't just disappear over night.
For me personally I grew up with the theory that Christians are perfect people, they don't have worries and are saints. I had this notion that once you obey Jesus and keep his commandments whatever you ask of him he will do for you. For example if you need a job, car, money... whatever, all you have to do is pray and it will for sure be answered. Now before y'all come at me, yes God does answer prayers, he his our ever present help in times of need. But what happens when we pray and nothing happens? Does he still remain our savior and ever present help in our time of need? My point is when you signed up to become a christian, you signed up to become Christ-like, to seek ye first the kingdom of God and every other thing comes after, to die to yourself and rise with Christ. Jesus Christ comes into our lives to save us and make us like him and not to just solve all our problems, will he do that? absolutely, he is a loving father and takes care of his own but our one and most important job is to love him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
2. Becoming a Christian is not a day thing.
Okay so first thing first this journey is not a joke (is not a joking stuff fam!). If my (our) life were so great and perfect we would not have decided we needed a savior and accepted Christ. I understand the excitement and subtle pressure that we feel when we are new Christians, for me I wanted and expected everything to change ASAP. I forgot that the life and habits I had formed for years wouldn't just leave me because I gave my life to Jesus yesterday afternoon. But then I slowly began to realize it is a journey and a process and what I realized is that God loves the process because its in that process that I(you) are formed. And this leads me to my next point.
3. Be Graceful to Yourself.
I honestly wish I knew this earlier. I beat myself up over so many things that I shouldn't have. When I decided I wanted Jesus to save me from my bondage of pornography, it was really a process for me. I would go months without indulging in it and then one fall will set me back so much that it would take Jesus to pull me back up again. OR times when I would be so diligent in reading my bible and doing all the godly things I knew how to do and then a little break would really pull me back. I guess I didn't understand then that the only reason why I was even able to love and follow Jesus was because he was and is still helping me love and pursue him. So understanding that fixing my gaze on Jesus continually is the major key even in times when I fall, fixing my eyes on him is seriously the best thing that can ever happen to me. Does that mean we take his grace for granted? Absolutely not, but being graceful to yourself even when you seem to have fallen short of your vows to Jesus.
4. The Church is really like a Hospital.
When I came to the realization of this, it honestly made some things very easy for me. Things like holing offense against my fellow church family. 99.9% of people that go to the hospital go because they need help. Now some patients that are in the hospital are responding to treatment and some aren't, some patient even come in to see the doctor to ask for help but end up not following the doctors order. In as much as all these happen, some of the patients that are responding, respond at different pace. So not every christian is actually chasing after Christ after all and for those who are, we have to be graceful enough to know that we are all on different journey and are responding to Christ at different pace. So as we encounter all the different parts of the church body lets remember to choose to love all the parts equally even when its difficult and be gracious. Be the reflection of Christ that you are.
5. Take it Slow and Steady.
When I started this journey I was so pumped that I wanted to finish reading the bible as fast as I could, I wanted all my questions to be answered, I wanted to read all the gospel books I could find. And all these things aren't necessarily bad, but I was going too fast and wasn't focusing on the main thing "My relationship with Jesus". So my advise will be take it slow and steady, enjoy Jesus and enjoy the process.
6. Christ Chastises so be ready to be Chastised.
It's obvious we looked and acted nothing like Christ before we invited him into our life, so in order to become Christ-like, we are going to need to actually allow him in into every area of our life so he can make us more like him. And sometimes this can look like Christ chastising us, so instead of pulling back, allow him and ask him for the strength and will to conform to his will and be more like him.
7. My heart will not always feel like its burning for Jesus and that's Okay.
For the longest time I always based how much I loved Jesus and how much he loved me on how great my feeling were, so whenever I went through times when my heart wasn't necessarily on fire for him I didn't think I was good enough for him or deserving of his love. But then I realized my feelings doesn't equal my faith in Jesus. And my feeling should definitely not determine my love for Jesus or his undying love for me. FAITH OVER FEELINGS (don't remember where I saw that). Because you don't feel like it does not mean Jesus loves you less so in those moment instead of pulling away, stay there with him and seek for him.
8. You need to find your sisterhood or brotherhood to run this race with.
I can not emphasize this enough. I get it, this christian thing is a personal relationship with Jesus but I believe to run this race effectively you need people with the same passion and vision for Christ alongside you. There would be times when you will need to rely on the strength and faith of your brother and sister to keep pushing and vice versa. So I strongly advise surrounding yourselves with other followers of Christ and keep pushing.
9. Find a mentor and someone you can also pour into.
You need someone that you can look up to and also learn from. You have people who have already journeyed through somethings you will come across so the earlier you get the wisdom from them the better for you. And as you get filled up, fill people up to.
I hope this blesses or encouraged someone. If you have any other points, i'll love to hear it so feel free to comment. Until next time. Peace.
Point on...we shuld make a movie outa this...so so so good..too too good..amazingly good...thank u
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