How Do I Live Now That I Am Saved?

This is where the fun is. What’s not fun is having to stop and clear out of the way the things that don’t make for peace-filled and joy-full living (see the previous question--How can I stop sinning?). With that done, the Salvation Basics give us eyes to see from God’s perspective a tremendous truth about life that we “knew” as little children, but lost along the way.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7

All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.

The New Life of Trust

This is the best part! We get to live by the same graceful means by which we got saved in the first place. We pray and trust, pray and trust, trust and follow, trust, and follow. It is meant to be "child's play" with some embattled times in between. Don't settle for a walk with the Lord that is only embattled! And don’t go back to serving the unholy trinity of Satan, sin, and Self. All along we were created to live for Jesus by listening to Him and obeying Him.

Trust is the key to victories. Trust keeps us well connected to the Lord. Trust is how we position our heart so that the Holy Spirit can lift us and lead us into the flow of the new life. It all goes along "swimmingly" so long as we keep trusting. Yes, that is the hard part. Jesus knows this. That is why He described believing in God as the "work" that we are meant to do.[1]

Trust enables us to recover the best parts of what it was like to live as a little child. When our hearts are full of trust, we enter and advance God’s Kingdom on earth. "How do I live now that I'm saved?" Put all your best effort into trusting Jesus with childlike confidence in His love and power!

And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3-4 AMP

You may be thinking, “But it is soooo hard for me to trust. I don't trust anyone—not even myself! Everyone has let me down!” This is actually an advantage. If you know that there is nowhere else to put your trust, then you are ready to start putting it in the one place where it should have been placed all along—in God!

"But He is invisible! How can I trust someone I can't see?" This is why He has given His Word to us. We can see His Word and hold His Word in our hands. We have His promises, His truths, and His guarantees in writing! He has staked His reputation as a truthful, dependable God on His Word being true and His promises being dependable.[2]

Even Jesus Had to “Work” at Trusting

Jesus, facing His worst moments in the Garden, cried out to His Father, “Your Word is Truth!"[3] Jesus "bet His life" on God's Word being true. We follow His lead and bet our lives again and again on things in God's Word that the Holy Spirit is teaching us to believe. Then as we trust ourselves to God, God demonstrates to us how trustworthy He really is. But you have to trust Him to find that out! Here is how Paul described the high-flying life of trust-filled love:

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 AMP

The main thing to grasp is that you live the new life in exactly the same way that you entered the new life: by grace through faith.[4] Just as you trusted Jesus to be God’s way of getting you to heaven, you also trust Jesus to be God’s way of getting a heavenly life to you down here. You are saved—brought into true life—by grace through faith every step of the way![5]

You had no way of solving the “what-do-I-do-about-death” problem, did you? But you are not worried about it now because you can see that Jesus will help you when the time comes. In the same way, you are certainly going to encounter all kinds of problems in life that you can’t see how to solve. Only some of these will be sin problems. Many of them will just be the garden variety of daily life problems. Jesus is your all-purpose Savior, Helper, and Guide for life. Looking to Jesus, trusting Him, and following Him will allow God to lead you into a new way of living (without so much stress, anxiety, and despair) and new results.

That just about does it! Are you ready to take the first steps?

Prayer

Father, You know that there are plenty of times when trust doesn’t come easily to me. Yet, now I see that trust is the key to living the new life of grace. May You, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit work with me and raise me to this “higher” way of living. I don’t know the way to get there, but You do: Lead into the bright Spirit-filled freedom of my new life in Christ!

On to the Next Question!

What are my first steps?  As they say, even the longest journey begins at your doorstep. Jesus is the door. Now that He is opened to you, you will certainly want to learn how to walk with Him all the way home to heaven.

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pdf After Salvation, What? (43-page eBook) (43 KB)

pdf How Do I Live Now that I'm Saved? (this article) (172 KB)