A preacher once said, “many people go into the baptismal pool as a dry sinner and come out as a wet sinner.” His point was that many of us profess to be Christians on the outside but on the inside, we still haven’t surrendered our all to Christ.
This was something that I experienced when I got baptised. I was 12 years old when I decided to get baptised. At the time I thought it was genuine because it was during an altercall at my close friends baptism. I was overcome by lots of emotions and felt like that was the Holy Spirit prompting me to give my heart to Him as well.
The only problem was that I didn’t really understand what salvation was about. I understood the whole concept of giving your heart to Christ but I didn’t know what happened after that. How do you continue to give your heart to Christ every day?
The piece of the jigsaw puzzle that was missing from my understanding was righteousness by faith. It was something that I learnt about 6 years after I got baptised.
So shortly after I made the decision, I got baptised. It was a beautiful ceremony and I felt the presence of God throughout the day.
Once I got baptised, I felt like I now had the responsibility to conduct myself as someone who was baptised.
The problem is that I thought that my works were going to give me salvation. For a long time, I had the mentality that as long as I go to church, have a leadership position, pray at least once a day and know some bible scriptures, I was saved.
Over the years, God has brought me into situations and allowed me to experience some sobering circumstances in order to show me that I can’t rely on my own works for salvation. In fact, I can’t rely on myself at all! My complete dependance has to be on Christ.
It is His righteousness that I need. His love. His peace. His faith.
Once I started to learn that lesson, life started to become a lot easier. I didn’t have to live this facade that I’m Holy and Sanctified when I know I’m full of sin.
I learnt the importance of continually asking for forgiveness and pleading that Christ changes my heart and makes me love fulfilling His will instead of being a slave to sin.
The more I realise how sinful I am, the more I realise how I am in need of a saviour.
I hope that we allow Jesus to change our hearts and mold us into His character. 🙂
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