Easy Steps to Start Your Walk!

If you're anything like me, you love new things, but are nervous to start them. Strings of questions like, "what am I supposed to do.. how does this work out.. am I doing this right," and more, fly around my anxious brain. In this post I want to give a few simple steps to comfortably start your relationship with Jesus.

---

I think one of the worst things Christians can do to non-believers is force the issue.

It's like when a Android-using friend wants you to make the switch from your iPhone to an Android. At first you politely say, "no, I'm happy with what I have." But, what if your friend was constantly berating your phone choice, saying that you don't know what you're missing, that you're wrong for being an Apple customer, and that Androids were the only way to truly enjoy your phone experience. Eventually it would get old, and you'd start to get annoyed with your friend, and even start to distance yourself from them. Besides, your iPhone is working just fine, why switch?

This mediocre analogy is my way of explaining how touchy it can be when believers try to preach the Gospel to non-believers. Some non-believers don't mind hearing about it, some don't care much for it and are happy with where they are in life, and some have had way too many judgemental experiences in their life to feel like Jesus is really worth putting their faith in. By no means am I saying believers should not talk to non-believers about the Gospel of Jesus, because that is in fact what we are called to do; to go and make disciples. But what I am saying is that it should to be done in a loving, patient, and non-threatening way. Being the annoying Android-loyalist type of Christian can so quickly turn away people from wanting to learn more about Christ.

So that's my goal in this post- to help those searching for God to feel welcomed, not judged, not forced. If you're a non-believer, or someone who has fallen away from their love of God, I don't want you to feel like I'm tying you to a chair and forcing you to say you love Jesus. That's not what Jesus did, nor is it what He taught. Instead, He teaches us through the Bible that our conversations with those who do not believe should, "be always full with grace, seasoned with salt, so that [we] may know how to answer everyone" (Colossians 4:6).

On another note, if you are a believer and happen to be reading this, feel free to share this post to those who do not know Christ. I've found that it tends to be easier to send someone a link, a video, or a story to start the conversation rather than mustering up the courage to come out and say, "hey can I talk to you about Jesus?" randomly. Take some of the pressure off your shoulders, use the resources you have at your fingertips to get the conversation going!

---

Alright!

Let's get down to it.

1. Seek Him.

What does that mean? How do you seek God? It's simple, really. Call out to Him and ask Him to come into your life. It might feel weird if you don't believe in Him to suddenly pray for Him to show Himself to you. But begin there. An important thing to remember is sincerity. If you're sitting in your room calling out to Buddha, Zeus, and God to see who will answer your first, you most likely won't be satisfied. When I say "call out to Him" I mean, pray to Him with your whole heart, wanting only Him to be your God. Here's an example of a prayer that exemplifies what I mean.

..."Lord, I am searching for meaning, I am searching for you. I want to believe fully in you, and I want to believe you are the one and only true God. Please send your spirit to me and guide me to faith in you. I want to live for you."

While there is no specific "formula" to find God per se, it is important to keep sincerity and true desire to know God in your prayers to Him. Here's a few verses to back up the explanation of this first step of beginning your walk with Jesus.

__ "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" Jeremiah 29:13

__ "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me" Proverbs 8:17

__ "But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul." Deuteronomy 4:29

2. Read & Listen.

Invest time into learning about God. But don't be discouraged if you get confused, or don't understand certain things. And don't feel like you have to read the whole Bible in one sitting. People who have been believers for decades still learn new things, still get confused, and still need guidance. Don't stress! But one of the best things you can do to in your walk with Jesus is to learn.

So where can you start? One thing I do daily that helps me set aside time with God is my daily devotional. A daily devotional is a daily reading and application of the Bible to your life. This is an easy commitment to make. Instead of scrolling through your phone for 10 minutes, pick up the Bible and your devotional.

***Disclaimer: beware of false teachers. It can be so easy to be sucked into false teaching of God because those teachers know how to make the lies sound good, they know how to entice the audience to commit their faith into empty promises, rather than the truth of Jesus Christ.

To be safe and avoid false teachers, begin on solid foundations. It can be as easy as turning to the first page of the Bible and starting there. But having teachings to supplement your reading will help things make a lot more sense. One solid devotional you can 100% count on to teach you the true Word of God is In-Touch Ministries Daily Devotional. A simple Google search with "In-Touch Ministries Daily Devotional" will bring you right to the correct page. If you don't have a printed Bible, Google is a great source to look up verses quickly. I personally use the Bible App (a brown colored App that says, "Holy Bible" on the icon... I use the NIV translation). It's very user friendly and convenient.

Charles Stanley (founder of In-Touch Ministries), Alistair Begg (Truth for Life), and my church's pastor Cody Busby (South Shore Baptist Church), are three solid Bible-teaching pastors that you can listen to without fear of being taught lies about God. (There's a link at the bottom of this website that will being you to my church's website where you can find recorded Sunday sermons!) The following is a verse to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and learn more about Christ!

__"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Romans 10:17

3. Reach out.

It can be awkward to begin your relationship with Christ because of how it is viewed in this day and age. Please do not be afraid to reach out and talk to other Christians if you have questions or just need to talk. We can't do this life alone, we weren't meant to. Use the chat button on the bottom right corner of this website to start a conversation with me. Having someone by your side will make your walk with Christ more fruitful.

4. Pray.

Like I said earlier, it can feel weird to all of a sudden start praying to God when it wasn't a regular part of your life before. But it is a wonderful gift from God that we should be eternally grateful for. We do not need to go to a priest to intercede for us, we do not need to do some fancy ritual before we talk to God, we do not need to sacrifice animals to be heard by God. We simply need to speak to Him from our hearts. It sounds sappy, but its real. How amazing is it to know that no matter where you are or what you're doing, you can speak to God! Once more, there's not a special formula to prayer. Just start!

If you feel intimidated by this idea of praying, reach out to me and I will help answer questions for you!