Post 5: The Beginning of True Wisdom
Image: AI generated image of a woman praying and an open bible with light coming out of it.
Post Summary: In the previous post, I discussed sharing my new found faith in Christ with key people in the first few days immediately after receiving the salvation of the Lord. In this post, I discuss beginning to learn about who God is in the first few weeks after being saved. I also discuss how I am starting to learn how to live a Christ-centered life, as well as how the Holy Spirit has been working to conform me more to the image of Christ.
One of the earliest (and most important) pieces of advice I recieved from my mom regarding a new christian growing in their faith in God was setting aside time regularly to pray and read the word of God. She stressed the vital importance of being very intentional in doing these things because prayer is how we talk to God and He reveals who He is in the Bible.
In the first several weeks of following this advice, I found some difficulty in praying and reading the bible regularly. Regarding praying, I was initially struggling with how I should pray and what I should be praying for. I began researching bible scriptures about how to pray, and came across the Lords Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV) which says:
“9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11. Give us this day our daily bread. 12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
After reading and researching commentary on this, I came to understand that this prayer is meant to be used as a guide or model for prayer, not to be recited verbatim daily. I also came to understand that by this model, all prayers should cover basic principles such as recognizing God's soverignty and holiness, understanding God's divine will is over all things, acknowledging that it is God who gives daily provision and allows for forgiveness of sins, and that it is by His grace and direction that we are even able to be delivered from evil and live in holiness.
Regarding reading the bible, I didn't really know where to start reading or what were the most important topics for a new christian to begin focusing on. I recounted that mom had initially given me a few scriptures to start with. Among these scriptures included Ephesians 6: 10-20 discussing the Armor of God, 2 Chronicles 20 discussing the faith of King Jehosaphat, and the Gospels of Matthew/Mark/Luke/John which provide different but complimentary perspectives on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. I started my readings with the Ephesians 6 and 2 Chronicles passages. I did also attempt to read straight through the Gospel of Matthew but found it difficult to stay consistent with reading and realized I was not really retaining very well what I was learning/reading.
After several weeks of struggling with this and having a few more conversations with mom, she mentioned that as a new child of God, I should be praying to God about ALL things. This naturally included asking God for assistance with how I was struggling with reading and understanding what He is trying to teach through His word. Incorporating this advice, I began semi-regularly and including prayer request to God to help me with learning, reading, understanding, and praying.
After a couple of weeks of consistent prayer petitioning God for help in these area, and being intentional with reading despite the struggle to understand, I slowly began to notice small improvements in retaining overall themes of the passages I was reading. This was exciting to me because I was recognizing that God was answering my prayers for help with understanding His word and learning His attributes and who He is! AMEN! I also began noticing that the more time I spent praying and reading the word, the more I grew to WANT to spend time with Him in His word and in prayer. Consistently seeking Him in prayer and His Word was seemingly lighting a fire in me to continue learning about Him and seeking Him daily.
I also began to notice that as I sought the truth and wisdom of the Lord in prayer and reading the word, my hobbies and desires I pursued began to change as well. Some of these notable changes in desires included re-prioritizing things that edify God and glorify goodness, while spending much less time consuming content and pursuing hobbies that were overly promoting sinfulness. I began to recognize the unfruitfulness of spending excessive amounts of time playing video games and a severely reduced desire to listen to the worldly, secular music that dominated my music playlists. I was also finding that enjoyment in violent content in music, video games, and television/movies was significantly decreasing and was being replaced with content that exalts the name of God and the person of Jesus Christ.
I also began to understand that pursuing the will of God for my life meant putting aside my own self-serving worldly desires, according to Matthew 6:24 (NIV) which says “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
As I intentionally sought the Lord's will and desire for me instead of my own selfish desires, I began to notice the gradual falling away of old sinful desires and habits. This falling away of the pursuit of sinful things in my life was manifesting as a result of putting my trust and faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and desiring to live sacrificially to the glory of the Lord. Romans 12: 1-2 says,
“1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
This was an exciting thing to read because I was recognizing that pursuing God in the word and in prayer was helping me to put off and resist sinful desires of the flesh. By intentionally setting my mind to Gods word and the works of His eternal kingdom, He is working in me to discipline myself to become transformed by the renewing of my mind through His word! AMEN!
Over the first several weeks following my salvation, applying the advice of other christians to intentionally read and pray regularly was producing noticable results in the growth of my faith in God through Jesus Christ. Stay tuned for the next post, where I discuss another of Mom's first recommendations for a new Christian...to find a good bible-based, gospel-centered church and find ways to serve others and fellowship with other believers in the church.