I've had the amazing opportunity to watch several people make the decision to be baptized ... and what a wonderful and joyous occasion it is! It often makes me wonder what keeps other people from making the same decision? What holds us back from baptism? It is not a decision to be made lightly -- but it is a decision that needs to be made. So, what keeps people from jumping in?
I'm sure people who have waited to be baptized could give lots of reasons for their wait. I'm sure those who are still waiting have lots of reasons, too. Whatever the reasons, I think the things that hold us back could be narrowed down to these three categories:
1) A lack of understanding.
2) A lack of urgency.
3) A lack of spiritual focus.
A lack of understanding:
This one starts out with the obvious: a small child does not understand why their parents want them to sit still and quiet through church services, let alone understand anything about baptism. As children learn and grow however, this begins to change. The point at which one is "old enough", "mature enough", and 'understands enough" is different for each individual. However when a person understands that Gods son, Christ, came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died for our sins, and that they need to turn away from sin and follow Gods will - beginning with baptism and continuing on the rest of their life - in order to be saved and have a home in Heaven, they are ready.
You don't have to know everything about the Bible. You don't have to feel ready to answer any biblical question anyone throws at you. You simply have to understand that Gods son, Christ, died for you, and that you need to be baptized and live for him (Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21, 1 John 3:16).
If you understand you've sinned, Christ died for your sins, and you need God ... That's all.
You then have the rest of your life to work on understanding more and doing better (because no matter how old you get there is always the opportunity for more and better! Proverbs 19:27, Proverbs 1:5).
If you understand what you need to do .... Then do it.
A lack of urgency:
Somewhere, somehow, we developed the idea that we have all the time in the world. We live as if Christ won't come til we're dead, and we won't die til we're old .... But those things are simply not guaranteed. I could die tomorrow. You could die tonight. Christ could return at dawn. We don't know (ECC. 12:6).
And because we don't know how much time we have, any moment you let go by *not* being saved, you are taking a risk. A HUGE, unnecessary, risk.
You could die in your sin. Christ could come back and find you in sin. You could live an eternity in hell.
That one lie you told even though you knew better? That could keep you out of heaven. The one time you stole even the smallest thing? Hell worthy sin.
The smallest thing, the biggest thing - if it is a sin - it is keeping you from God. And if you haven't been saved, you have no way to rectify that situation. You have no way to God. No way to Heaven.
Isaiah 59:2 reads "your iniquities have separated you from your God, your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear you..."
If the thought of dying in your sin and going to Hell doesn't fill you with urgency ... Perhaps you need to take a hard look at point 3.
A lack of Spiritual focus:
Perhaps one of the biggest things holding us back is that our focus is in the wrong place. Raised in the Church or not, we often fall into the same trap: we focus on school, on family, on choir, band, basketball, football, volleyball, keeping grades up, going to college, friendships, taking care of family, having jobs, finding a spouse, being a spouse, raising children, being there for others, following our dreams, ..... Etc.....
And we forget the most important thing.
We forget that we are spiritual beings. That our earthly selves (no matter what we do in a carnal sense) will eventually die. End of story. And our highschool experiences, our careers, our world dreams won't really matter anymore.
But our spiritual selves will live on. And how we chose to spend our worldly existence will determine where we spend our eternity.
So while we enjoy our lives and chase our dreams, we need to do so with our focus on spiritual things (Matthew 6:20).
Furthermore....
A lack of understanding, a lack of urgency, and a lack of Spiritual focus don't only hold us back from being baptized. It is these same three things that often hold us back from living up to our potential as Christians.
Baptism is simply the first step. Because if you never start your walk with God, you'll never be ready to run the race in such a way to win the crown (1 Corinthians 9:24).
