Something that I’ve never heard anyone discuss before, are the benefits of becoming a born again believer in latter life.
Maybe benefits is not the right word.
I spent years bitter because I did not grow up in a Christian home like all my adult friends. I felt like if I had, I would not have screwed up my life so much before age 22. I made d sad I many mistakes and wrong turns between age 14-22, I loss tract.
I got saved a couple of months before my 23rd birthday. I still remember, as if it were yesterday. I also remember how I use to see the world and everyone in it. I thought that that would have been something I would have forgot, all these years later. But I have not.
Becoming saved as an adult has made me view things a whole lot different then all of my Christian friends. I remember what worked and what didn’t work, when people talked about God to me. I remember all the many times I went to church as a child and teen.
I don’t have any memories going to church with my mother, but I do remember going to church with both of her sisters. Both were Presbyterians. (Insert short fun Bible lessons, having snacks and learning about Adam and Eve, Jonah, and Noah’s Ark again and again and again. Nothing more!)
I also went to church with my grandmothers when I spent the night with them. One was Pentecostal (insert 4 hour services on a backroads farm) And the other grandma was a Roman Catholic. (Insert a bunch of hand movement rituals, singing and chit-chat from the pulpit, without a clue to what I just heard) Visiting my father, I have memories of going to confession and making up things to say. Just got kicks!
I ask myself, What did I actually believe in? I believed in Evolution and the Big Bang. I also believed in Adam and Eve. I just though they were the cavemen.
By the time I was 22, and I heard the true gospel, from my now husband, I was a mess. I remember telling him that I was recarnated and was many different people and animals in my past lives.. having memories here and there.
I also believed that the Bible was never to be taken seriously. And if it were true, it was dated. My mom use to tell me that.
Fast Forward: I am a born again believer of The one and ONLY true God, Jesus Christ.
I have been a Christian for 25 years now. Have I backslid during these 25 years? Yes I have!
But God always led me right back to him through prayer.
Before I was saved, I had no idea what convictions felt like. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, without any guilt whatsoever.
Was that an easier way to live? Simply for yourself? Sure it was!
But I would never ever want to go back to who I was and how I was. My whole mind frame has changed. And I know that I had nothing to do with it. Christ did. I was having too much fun living for me.
Culture takes a sin and celebrates the sin. I was a free agent. Highs and deep lows in life. When it was good, it was very good. And when it was bad, I wanted to die.
I remember being very much a part of worldly culture, and I know what it’s like to be part of counterculture. It’s so much more fulfilling!
That said, one of the benefits of becoming saved as an adult is that I have never felt like God abandoned me when things were not going well for me. (Let’s face it, Christian or not, life is not a bowl of cherries 24/7)
I have also never felt disappointed, or mad at God. Wanting to throw in the towel and go back to my pre-saved days. I hear Christian’s share these two things pretty frequently.
I think it’s because I remember how I felt before I was saved. And in comparison to how I have feel as a Christian.. Well, there is no way that I could ever dream of going back to that empty, shallow, lifeless, lonely, internal feeling that I couldn’t escape late at night when I was all alone with my thoughts.
Life was crazy! Filled with uncertainty and questions.
I have no questions now. I know how it ends. I have no uncertainty now. I have no loneliness.. even when I’m alone. I do not Fear death whatsoever. I remember thinking that o was once a bunny rabbit that was killed by a wolf. Goodness me! I actually believed I use to be a rabbit!!
I also know when, and when I am not in Gods will. I will start off his path and feel him tug me back. It is remarkable!
His yoke is easy. I never knew or understood the meaning of that until I became one with Christ.
It’s an organic feeling. And being on the right road in life is pretty darn Amazing. I feel peace.
I have peace in the good and bad times.
I can feel sad, yet at complete peace through Christ.
Is there anything better to delight in, then being at Peace 24/7? I think not!
If someone would have shared all of these things with me as a child or teen, I would have though they were nuts! I would not have understood what they meant by having internal peace when something awful has happened. I would not have understood what it meant to be born again. To physically die, to lose my putter shell (flesh) yet have my spirit alive forever. That is a-lot to fully grasp. I am just so thrilled that I had people praying for me and a husband that took a chance on me.
From North to South 