5 Things to Do After You Get Saved

Salvation is so much more than just praying a prayer.

While you can do nothing to earn or buy God’s gift of salvation, there is much you will do after Christ has saved you.

In fact, Paul even said in Philippians 2:12: “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Meaning, you are saved, you must now maintain that salvation.

But don’t let that make you afraid of losing your salvation, because in the very next verse, Paul said this, “…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

He means this: You don’t have to do this alone! God has already given you His grace – the ability to do what you don’t have the power to do by yourself. God is coming alongside of you to help you live this Christian life.

God’s grace is this: It is His power to enable an ordinary man to do an extraordinary task.

And the good news is that His grace is available to you each day in direct proportion to your need. Grace never, ever, ever runs out! Ever!

So, now that you are saved, here are 5 things you need to start doing

1. Read the Bible – God gave us the Bible as a way to get to know Him and as a way to know how we should live this new life. The Bible dictates for us our lifestyle and our world view. It is the final word for the Christian.

If you’re not sure where to start reading, here is a post I’ve written simply titled “Where to Start Reading in the Bible“.

Here is another post titled, “How to Read Your Bible {and get the most out of it}“.

One thing you need to realize is that doing any of these 5 things, including reading your Bible, doesn’t make God love you more.

He loves you just because He loves you! My dad has a great post on this titled, “5 Reasons Why Christians Should Not Read the Bible“. Don’t let these 5 things trip you up when you read the Bible each day!

2. Pray – Prayer is how we speak to God. It is how we communicate with Him. It is also how we open up our hearts for Him to change us and to keep our hearts and minds focused on Him.

I believe a lot of people complicate the act of prayer, but there are three things you need to know about prayer:

Prayer is not reading other people’s prayers.
Just like your husband wouldn’t want you to recite Hallmark card greetings as a way to express your feelings to him, so God doesn’t want us to just read other people’s prayers. It’s not wrong to allow prayers such as the Serenity Prayer to inspire us to pray, but written prayers are not a replacement for us expressing our heart to God.

We can pray wherever we are.
In your bed, in your shower, in your car…you can pray anywhere and at anytime. Just like a parent is always ready to listen to whatever their child has to say, so God is eager to hear our prayers! You don’t have to be in a church to pray, and no one has to do the praying for you. God wants to hear your heart! Just start talking to Him as you would your best friend.

God cares about the small things.
You will never annoy God with your prayers and nothing is too small for God to care about. In fact, He cares about the small things in our lives as much as the big things. Are you thinking about buying a new car? Pray about it! Are you considering putting your children in a new school? Pray about it! In fact, James tells us that if we need wisdom for anything in life, all we need to do is ask God. He will give it to us.

In fact, James says that God doesn’t prefer certain people over others. He wont say to you, “Uh, your not Billy Graham, so forget it!” No, God doesn’t play favorites. The only condition to this is that when you ask God for wisdom, believe that He will actually give it to you. And He will.

In my Bible study 7 Days to a Better Prayer Life, I teach about prayer and how we can begin praying effectively.

3. Go to church – I know some people believe that this is optional, but it really isn’t.

The Bible says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:24-25

While you may argue that the church is full of hypocrites, the fact is that there are hypocrites wherever you go.

This argument often makes me laugh because you wouldn’t say, “I’m quitting my job because it’s full of hypocrites.”

The truth is that the church is full of humans, and these humans are all on various levels of maturity – emotional and spiritual maturity. Each of these humans have come to Christ with baggage, and some of them have come with a lot of baggage.

And just because we come to Christ doesn’t mean that baggage just miraculously falls off. Instead, He takes us on a journey to resolving our past, step by step, and with each step we learn more about who Christ is and who we are in Him.

Are you unsure about how to find a church? In the next blog post I share 4 Tips to Find a Church, and a printable list you can download to help you!

4. Get baptized – While some may believe that baptism is an unnecessary ritual, throughout the New Testament we see multiple commands, by both Jesus and the Apostles, for baptism.

As a matter of fact, baptism always immediately followed salvation. In every instance.

But what is baptism?

First of all, we need to understand that baptism does not save us. Baptism doesn’t not wash away our sins.

Baptism is a symbolic act that reflects what we read in Romans 6:4: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

When the pastor lowers us down into the water, it symbolizes our old life being dead and buried – just as Jesus died and was buried in a tomb.

When he lifts us out of the water, it symbolizes Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and that through Him, we have new life, too!

Never underestimate the power of this symbolic act in your life as a new Christian!

5. Tell others – There is just something very powerful about sharing your faith with others.

Telling other people about Jesus can feel scary and intimidating, but taking that first step to tell someone about your new faith in Christ is so powerful!

In fact, in Revelation 12:11 it says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb (this is Jesus and His sacrifice) and by the word of their testimony (this is you telling your friend about Jesus), and they did not love their lives to the death.”

If you’re unsure how to tell others about Jesus, check back next week because during the rest of the month I’ll be writing about how to share your faith with others!