Back in my sophomore year of college I truly started to understand what it meant to surrender my life to the Lord. One day I found myself in the mountains on my knees crying out to Him saying “Take my whole life, take it all, I want none of it.” That is not to say that since then I have been perfect at it or that I totally understand it all. But each day I wake up and I choose to have a relationship with the Lord of lords and the good, good Father. Since I have started walking boldly in my faith and growing in my walk with Him the idea of being re-baptized has stirred in my heart many times. You see, at the age of nine I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. I was baptized shortly after, showing the world I believed in Jesus and was made new, but since the age of nine I wasn’t walking out my faith and I wasn’t fully surrendered to Him. In what ways was I not walking out my faith? I wasn’t studying God’s word. I was holding onto pieces of my life I wanted to control. I wasn’t worshiping Him and bringing Him all the glory and honor He deserves. I knew Jesus, but I didn’t have a great relationship with Him until about 3 years ago when I began walking out my faith.
Back home at my church when baptism weekends came around I always thought to myself I should sign up to be re-baptized, but never did. The pastor would talk about baptism being a visible expression of an inward change or a decision of being all in. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Through baptism we proclaim our testimony of faith and being born again by the grace of God.
Last month in Serbia my team and I got on the conversation of baptism and who had been baptized and who wanted to be re-baptized. I told them if the opportunity of being re-baptized came up on the race I would love to because I feel like since that day in the mountains I have truly been made new in Christ. So about a week ago I found myself in Greece for our “adventure days” this month. Each day many others and I woke up and walked down to the water to watch the sunrise and have our quiet time with the Lord. On the second morning as I looked at the sea I said “okay Lord, teach me what you have to say about seas in the bible.” So I went to the back of my bible and looked up the word SEA. The word didn’t exist, so I looked up WAVES since I could hear the waves crashing on the shore. That word didn’t exist either, but the word WATER did and I immediately saw Psalms 42:1 so I went and read it. As I read, verses 7-8 stood out to me, “I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours His unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing His songs, praying to God who gives me life.” These verses had both the words I tried looking up just minutes before. I continued to watch the sun rise as I wrote those verses in my journal.
Later that day we went to a different beach and one of my squad mates who had just recently given his life to Christ was being baptized in the Aegean Sea. After he was baptized our squad mentor, Erika said that she would baptize anyone who wants to be baptized. Before she could finish her sentence tears rolled down my face and I said, “I want to be baptized.” I walked out to the center of my squad and was prayed over then proclaimed to the world that I believed Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I was made a new creation in Him. Seconds after I came out of the water my beautiful sisters in Christ swarmed around me with love and joyful hugs. Joy was truly overflowing from my heart that day. Little did we know that we had caught the attention of the entire beach! After returning to the shoreline a woman asked my squad mate what we were doing out there and he got the opportunity to tell them about Jesus and baptism!
I am so in awe of the tender way God spoke to my heart that day. He truly knows me better than I know myself. He knew I wanted to read about the seas and waves that morning and knew that later that day I was going to be baptized in the Aegean Sea! He also opened the door for one of my squad mates to tell people about His son who died on the cross for them. I am so loved by God and it blows my mind everyday! I pray that if you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and have never been baptized to have that conversation with your pastor because it is something Jesus has called us to do.
This is the sunrise!
This is the spot I got baptized at.
