Baptism and Your Relationship With God

REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION

Some other steps must be taken before you qualify for baptism.  The apostle Peter said:  "Repent . . . and turn around so as to get your sins blotted  out." (Acts 3;19) To repent is feel sincere regret over something you have done.  Repentance is clearly fitting if a person who has lived an immoral life, but it is also necessary every if one has lived a relatively clean life morally. Why? Because all humans are sinners and need God's forgiveness.  (Romans 3:23;5:12)  Before studying the Bible, you did not know what God's will was. So how could you have lived in full harmony with his will?  Therefore, repentance is  necessary.

Repentance must be followed by conversion, or 'turning around.' You must do more than feel regret. You need to reject your former way of life and be firmly determined that you will do what is right from now on. Repentance and conversion are steps that you must take before being baptized.

MAKING A PERSONAL DEDICATION

There is another important step to take before being baptized. You must dedicate yourself to Jehovah God. 

When you dedicate yourself to Jehovah God in earnest prayer, you promise to give him your exclusive devotion forever.  (Deuteronomy 6:15)  Why, though, would someone want to do that? Well, suppose a man has begun to court a woman. The more he learns about her and sees that she has fine qualities, the more he fins himself drawn to her.  In time, it is natural that he would ask her to marry him. True, getting married will mean taking on additional responsibilities.  But love will move him to take that important step.  

When you come to know and love Jehovah, you are moved to serve him without holding anything back or setting any limits in worshiping him. Anyone who wants to follow God's Son, Jesus Christ, has to "disown himself."  (Mark  8:34)  we disown ourselves by making sure that personal desires and goals do not stand in our way of our complete obedience to God. Before you can be baptized, then, doing Jehovah God's will must be your main purpose in life. -1 Peter 4:2. 

Next time: Baptism and Your Relationship With God/OVERCOMING FEAR OF FAILURE

From the book: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE REALLY TEACH?