If you hope to be baptized one day, just what do you have to do? How do you get there? Does God simply decide out of the blue when He feels like helping you along the process of conversion? Or is there something that you can personally do to move towards baptism?
While it is true that God calls people, (John 6:44) there are concrete steps that you can take now that will help you move towards baptism in your future. If you have grown up in the Church, God has already allowed you to start seeing and understanding the truth (Acts 2:38-39). You are therefore being called now, in this age – a rare opportunity! It is up to you to accept your calling when you are mature enough to grasp it. But how do you accept it? How do you progress along the process of conversion?
Baptism is a way of committing yourself to a relationship with God. There is no turning back once baptized! Now if this is the case, surely it is vital that by the time you are baptized you have a rock-solid relationship with God through thick and thin. Can God entrust you with His Holy Spirit if you might neglect your relationship with Him, potentially reaping eternal death? God wants all of us to come to repentance and to ultimately be in His family; however, He simply can’t take the chance of giving us His Holy Spirit if we don’t have a dependable and meaningful relationship with Him.
This step of developing a relationship with God is up to you. God does things with a reason, and one of the most important gauges He will use to see how you are coming along in the process of conversion is whether you have a strong and committed relationship with Him. The best part is that you can do something about this! The Bible tells us to “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). If you seek God, and try to develop a good relationship with Him, God in turn will strengthen His relationship with you. It’s guaranteed!
If you diligently seek God, do you believe that he will reward your efforts? “…he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). So believe God, seek Him diligently and see what happens. He will reward you! You are fully able to initiate this process and beyond a doubt, you will see real changes occur in your life as the process of conversion kicks in. If you draw close to God, He can work with you, and be assured that in all His wonderful ways that are often truly beyond our comprehension, He will!
Once you have started developing a committed relationship with God through regular and sincere prayer and study, you should consider contacting your minister for specific guidance and assistance towards baptism. Sometimes it may seem scary to talk to a minister about these things, but you don’t have to worry. They are not going to ask you for a 3,000-word essay on your past sins! Ministers are God’s servants and God uses them to reach out to you with specific help and guidance. They are experienced and compassionate, and will help gently guide you towards baptism.
So try putting Jesus Christ’s advice to the test, “So, I tell you, continue asking, and it will be given to you. Keep on searching and you will find. Be knocking, and the door will open for you. You will receive, if you will always ask. You will find, if you continue looking. And the door will open for you, if you continue knocking (Matthew 7:7-8, Simple English translation).
Remember, there is something very real that you can do to prepare for baptism. It is in your hands to show God that you really want to have a strong, lasting, and dependable relationship with Him. So diligently pray and study, knock, ask, and look for a relationship with God and for an understanding of His truth and He will reach out to you.
God will never leave a sincere and healthy request unanswered, especially in the case of a request to draw closer to Him! It’s up to you to ask, to seek, and to find!
