Becoming a Christian

You have decided that you want to be one of Jesus's followers. That's great. What next?

You need to:
Trust Him
Follow Him
Grow in your faith

Trusting Jesus

This means that you believe Him, in the truth of His Word (the Bible) and that you want to base your life on what He teaches and says. Of course, you might have doubts and you might not at the moment be able to say you believe everything, but on the whole you have decided that you are ready to 'call Him Lord'. He is going to be your leader -- the one you follow. Read the following verses, and even try to memorise some of them.

Romans 10:8-10 Philippians 2:10,11 Philippians 3:7-9 John 3:16,17

Follow Jesus

Lots of people say they believe Jesus is God. But that's not enough, we have to become His disciples or followers. We need to be His 'hands and feet' here on earth. We don't know what that will mean - He will give us gifts to help. Some people end up teaching others or preaching to unbelievers. Others have gifts of healing, etc. But to start with it means aiming to live the way He wants us to. Jesus summed this up with 2 commandments, which you can read in Matthew 22:37-39. If you make obeying those your aim, you will discover that God is with you in your life.

Grow in your faith

The way to continually become more like Jesus is to spend time with Him day by day. That means three things: regular prayer, regular Bible study or reading, and regular fellowship

Prayer is about talking to Jesus and also listening to Him. Bible reading is about getting to know His plan for us more - and as we do so we will find we hear His voice as we are praying too. Fellowship is joining with other Christians in worshipping Jesus, and being taught by others as we discover what each other has learnt.

TFG's Prayer pages will give you some ideas about prayer, you can follow our Bible Study Blog to read through John's Gospel (start from the beginning even though the schedule may well have finished by the time you read this) or use the Walking Bible pages to help to learn verses.

There are some great churches around the Ealing area - if you are further afield there are some near you too! Chat to friends about where they go, or try your local church to see what they have available for young people.

Open your mouth!

Finally, we must not keep it to ourselves.

The first thing we need to do is to tell Jesus that we have decided to follow Him. Many people use a prayer like the one below - but you can use your own words:

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank you that You died to save me from the awful consequences of my sin. I am sorry that I have not loved You up to now, but I am now choosiing to follow You and to make You the Lord of my life. Help me to stop being selfish and living for myself.I welcome the Holy Spirit into my life, that He might direct and guide me in Your way. Help me to become more like You, to bring glory to You and to the Father. Thankyou Jesus. Amen

The Bible is clear, we also need to declare our faith - that means to talk about it with others and not hiding it. See Romans 10:9 and Matthew 5:15. Eventually, there is Baptism and/or Confirmation, a public ceremony where you tell the world that you have decided to follow Jesus!