{"id":36270,"date":"2012-12-26T19:55:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=36270"},"modified":"2021-07-02T19:58:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T00:58:11","slug":"i-want-to-change-from-being-a-sinner-to-living-a-holy-life-but-i-dont-know-when-or-how-to-start-can-you-help-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-change-from-being-a-sinner-to-living-a-holy-life-but-i-dont-know-when-or-how-to-start-can-you-help-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to change from being a sinner to living a holy life, but I don&#8217;t know when or how to start. Can you help me?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hello,<\/p>\n<p>I want to change from being a sinner to living a holy life, but I don&#8217;t know when or how to start. Can you help me? The thing is I&#8217;ve asked God for repentance two or three times before, and then there comes along a test, and I always fail them. Suddenly I start to give up and going back to being a sinner.<\/p>\n<p>God knows I&#8217;m trying and wants to change because He even gave me a Bible (a New Testament) for Christmas. He wants me to know His word. He wants me to change now. I&#8217;m trying to stop all the stealing, pornography, profanities, and also act a bit more mature. God is working with me because He is putting me in places so I could hear lectures and His word about life from other people who are not even Christians themselves because I was too blind to hear them myself from Him.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus is reaching his hand to save me; he&#8217;s knocking, but I&#8217;m not opening. This time I want to open my heart to him. I want to change now, I cannot wait any longer. I want my name to be written in the Book of Life, so I can live an eternal life with God and His Lamb.<\/p>\n<p>Please, I hear that you&#8217;re a preacher yourself. When can I start and how? Should I ask for repentance again? Should I get Baptist? I go to church by the way. Please answer me back soon as possible, and God bless you.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Being a Christian means constantly growing and improving yourself. If you are thinking that becoming a Christian will instantly make you a good person, then you will be sadly disappointed. There is nothing that will instantly change you. Instead, it is a matter of seeing a problem and then working on making changes. Some will be straight forward and others will take a good bit of effort.<\/p>\n<p>The best time to start is immediately. The sooner that you start battling sin, the easier it becomes to win. I don&#8217;t agree with denominations of any sort. God wants people to become Christians and you learn straight from your Bible. First, I want you to read\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-must-i-do-to-be-saved-2\/\">What Must I Do to be Saved?<\/a>\u00a0Look up all the verses. It might take a while if you aren&#8217;t used to finding verses in your Bible. Honestly look at what you have done and think about whether it matches what you read in your Bible.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hello, I want to change from being a sinner to living a holy life, but I don&#8217;t know when or how to start. Can you help me? The thing is I&#8217;ve asked God for repentance two or three times before, and then there comes along a test, and I always fail them. Suddenly I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[99,390,295,47,179],"class_list":["post-36270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-becoming-a-christian","tag-conversion","tag-holiness","tag-salvation","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23304,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-make-my-relationship-more-god-centered\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":0},"title":"How do I make my relationship more God-centered?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know romantic relationships should be God-centered, but I'm having trouble doing this with my boyfriend. He's a Christian, but not too strong of a Christian. I tried to put God into our relationship by suggesting reading a Bible chapter together each day. We read only two times. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-boyfriend-has-been-pushing-for-things-to-go-further-i-resisted-for-a-while-but-recently-i-caved\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":1},"title":"My boyfriend has been pushing for things to go further, I resisted for a while, but recently I caved","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I want to ask for advice and for you to share the word of God with me. I am a sinner and I am repented of my rebellious ways. I have committed fornication with my first and current boyfriend. I have been a Christian for two years and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86658,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/condemnation-or-conviction\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":2},"title":"Condemnation or Conviction?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores To many, \"conviction\" is the same as \"condemnation,\" and most of us familiar with condemnation don't like it much. You know, the (not so) subtle voice that hisses, \"You're not good enough!\" \"You're a failure!\" \"It's too late for you, there's no hope because you'll never change!\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94512,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-repent-before-being-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":3},"title":"How can you repent before being forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings! I've been struggling to understand repentance. I know it's commonly taught that we must repent of all sin before we can be saved. However, as I read Romans and some of Paul's other writings, I find that Paul talks about being made free from sin, putting to death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-know-if-ive-truly-repented\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":4},"title":"How do I know if I&#8217;ve truly repented?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I feel empty that I've sinned against the Lord. The trouble is, I'm afraid I haven't truly repented. I've committed sexual sins against the Lord and I really do want to resist it. I've been studying and it has revealed to me much. I'm just afraid I haven't changed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-repent-can-you-tell-me-what-i-need-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":36270,"position":5},"title":"I want to repent. Can you tell me what I need to do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a sinner. I have suffered too much in this life. I have committed too many sins. The reason why I am writing to you is that I want to give my life to God. I love my boyfriend so much, and I told him my darkest secret,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}