Steps to Peace with God
by Annie Yorty ©2022
Steps to Peace with God
Have you come to a point in life where you’re tired of bearing the burden of your sin? Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV).
If you are depending on yourself to overcome your sins, the Bible says you’re an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). Your sin constantly battles against His holy perfection.
God provides a way out of this hopeless war. Below are three simple steps to peace with God. Each person makes a personal decision to either accept or reject this gift offers through His Son, Jesus.
You need not recite or pray any special words if you wish to lay down your burden of sin and receive peace with God. God searches and knows your heart. Nevertheless, I have added a simple prayer you may use to indicate your heart’s desire to receive Christ as your Savior.
A-B-C Steps to Peace with God
Admit Your Sins
Every person inherits a sin nature from the first man, Adam. Even one sin condemns us to death and eternal punishment, so we are doomed. Prone to pride, we think we can fix our own problems, but God tells us we are helpless to save ourselves from sin. We need to humbly admit that, like a small child, we have sinned and are completely needy. We need a Savior.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 NKJV).
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 NKJV).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 NKJV).
Dear God, I have sinned against You and others. I am helpless to save myself from condemnation that I deserve. I need You to save me.
Believe in Jesus
God personally loves you because He created you. He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, to shed His blood and die on a cross as punishment for all the sins of every person who ever lived or will live. That includes you! On the third day after His death, God raised Jesus from the dead. Because of His power over sin, He offers the grace of undeserved forgiveness to you and all who will believe that Jesus is God’s Son, depending on Him alone to save.
So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31 NKJV).
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17 NKJV).
Dear God, by faith I believe that only your Son, Jesus, can save me from the curse and punishment of sin. I choose to turn away from my sin and trust in Jesus as my Savior for forgiveness that removes all guilt.
Confess Jesus as Your Lord
God does not save us from sin so we can continue living in its muck according to our own ways. With Jesus as our Lord, or authority, we surrender control to Him and choose to live according to His ways written in the Bible. We must publicly confess, or declare, our dependence and loyalty to Christ above all.
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10 NKJV).
Dear God, I declare Jesus is my Lord and Savior. With Your help, I will imitate His ways and unashamedly share my faith with others.
Next Steps
If you turned your heart away from sin and toward God through our Lord Jesus, you now have peace with God. You are no longer His enemy.
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God (Romans 5:11 NLT).
Even more incredibly, God adopts you into His spiritual family as a son or daughter.
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV).
I rejoice that you’re now an eternal member of God’s family. Today, you came into the family as a baby, but God will help you to grow up spiritually. You can read more about activities to help you grow at my blog, Growing with God.
My prayer for you as you find peace with God
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might (Ephesians 1:18-20 NASB).
If you have begun a relationship with Jesus today, please message me. It would be my privilege to pray specifically for you.