Not everyone who chooses to follow Jesus was brought up in a Christian household. Some of us don’t get introduced to God until we’re in college or university, or even later. (And God rejoices over every single one of us who turns to Him, regardless of when we do.) But some of us have always lived in a Christian home, with a family who’ve taught us about God’s Word, read Bible stories to us, and taken us to church. It’s an amazing gift to be introduced to God when we’re very young, but sometimes if we’ve grown up with it and it’s always been part of our lives, we can start to take it for granted. We might lose our enthusiasm for God and become lukewarm in our faith. We might feel we want to rebel in some way and try to turn our backs on God, or become tempted by other things and neglect our time with Him. There are many reasons why we might stray from the path that we started on, but once we recognise we’ve gone wrong, or neglected God in some way, it’s important for us to go back and draw close to Him again. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, ‘You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus’ (2 Timothy 3:15 NLT). Paul warned Timothy to expect persecution for his faith, and cautioned him about deceivers. In that moment, he thought it was important to remind Timothy of the teaching he’d grown up with and to continue trusting God. We often need that advice too. And really, it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been a Christian, sometimes we just need that reminder of our salvation through Jesus.

What now?

Every morning for the next week, pray the sinner’s prayer. Try to really focus on the truth of the words you’re saying, and be reminded of your amazing gift of salvation.