You’re a Christian now. Great! A few suggestions for your next steps follow:
- Share your decision to follow Christ: Tell a friend.
- Connect with other believers in Christ. Learn with others. Pray and join a good, evangelical, Bible-teaching church. Do not be unduly influenced by congregation size, building, professional music, or preaching presentations when looking for a church. Look for heart. Look to see if people love each other. Discern whether or not the staff are good teachers and shepherds. Ask for information about church goals, study opportunities, beliefs, and missions involvement. Determine if staff teach and preach in a way that communicates the need to be prepared for the imminent return of the Lord.
- Join a study group: Meeting with a small group of fellow believers provides an opportunity to build relationships, share, learn, pray with and for others, and walk with others on your spiritual journey.
- Develop your personal prayer life: Many have busy schedules and hesitate to schedule something new—particularly a new time commitment every day. However, prayer is not only important; it is essential. Jesus prayed constantly and encouraged his disciples to pray. Paul noted that believers are to “pray without ceasing”[1] A few suggestions to help you develop a meaningful daily prayer time are listed below.
Schedule it: For many, it doesn’t get done if it’s not on the schedule. Set a time each day to have a conversation with God. Try to develop a Pray-Through-The-Day mindset.
Seek out a prayer partner: This needs to be a confidant who will pray for you and with you— someone who will encourage and challenge you.
Keep a prayer journal: Track your prayers. Follow up with your prayer partner to let them know you have not forgotten their prayer requests.
Be specific: Note when you begin praying for specific needs and how God moves. Review your prayer journal often and rejoice in seeing how God moves to answer specific requests.
- Plan to give: Christian stewardship is the mark of spiritual maturity. When believers give, believers receive. Give cheerfully, regularly, and generously. Give of your time, talent, resources, and finances. Remember, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).
- Read and study the Word: Acts 17:11 notes that the Bereans (a small group of believers living in Berea) were commended for their diligence in studying the Word. It honors God when His people strive to learn what His Word says—how to live and share it.
Here are links to daily Bible reading guides. Click HERE to download a standard read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year guide. Click HERE to download a chronological Bible reading guide.
- Prayerfully consider if God is calling you not just to be a believer, but also to be a Watchman for the Lord. The English term Watchman is found more than a dozen times in Scripture. In Ezekiel 33:1-9, a Watchman is presented as a bold and faithful believer who exercises a concern beyond self. A Watchman will know the Word, be attuned to the Lord’s working and expectations, and find ways to inform and warn others about what God has done, what He expects, and what He has promised.
TITLE: Discipleship – What it looks like to be a disciple for Christ
[1] 1 Thessalonians 5:17