Baptism ~ made NEW

I’m sharing this with the hopes that it will reach at least one person. I have been a Christian for basically my whole life & I got baptized in 1st grade. From 1st grade to 8th grade I followed Jesus but I treated my walk with Him as more of a rule book & check list instead of a relationship. When I went on my youth group summer camp trip with Kairos I gained an entirely new perspective of my walk with Christ. I finally understood that a walk with Christ is a relationship. However, in high school I loved Jesus, but I was constantly striving for perfectionism, overly consumed my peoples opinions of me, trying to do everything I could to appear “good” to God. I was so stagnant & I lived a mundane Christian life. Yes, there were very many good Jesus moments that were amazing, but I was so caught up with myself. I wanted to be Lord over my life, not God. A lot happened senior year and I found Jesus in a way like never before. He became real & alive & authentic to me. I saw Him in everything, He encountered me in the details, He was constantly surrounding me. I went to college with a fresh understanding of Jesus, but still felt a lack of growth & I hungered for more of Him, but I was still so stagnant. Then. I went to ywam & this truly changed everything. The Lord has dealt with my wounds, He has mended my brokenness, He has encountered me in a way that brings to my knees in awestruck wonder. He has shown me what true abundant life is & how to experience overflowing joy. I can truly say that I am content in Him alone & that He is what truly satisfies. I say all this to say that you can be a Christian your whole life & still be missing out on the abundant life God has for you. There is freedom in surrender. It's when we die to ourselves that we can become alive in Him. So, this baptism for me represents the new person that Christ has made me. the childlike girl that is unapologetically in love with Jesus. I am a completely different person in Jesus, transformed by his amazing grace & redemptive love. I want this for you too. the Father deeply desires a relationship with you. He loves you beyond all of our capacity of understanding. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”