Sam

My baptismal testimony
My family and I have been attending services at Zion, Ripon, for over 6 years now, and before that I was a regular churchgoer from childhood. Indeed, I’ve been brought up in a Christian household as part of a mainly-believing extended family. As such, I’ve had the benefit of prayer, discussion and teaching about the Lord for all of my life.
I’ve been christened, confirmed, and always marked as, and (I’m told by mum and dad) identified myself as, a Christian so why, you may ask, do I now feel the need to be baptised?
Well, baptism identifies someone not only as a Christian, but as being united with the Lord Jesus in his burial and resurrection. It is a witness to the fact that someone has been born again of the Spirit. This is by no means a routine ritual or practice, and I felt that a sense of inner-confirmation was needed before I could be baptised.
Having spoken to the pastor about these matters, I was, among other things, recommended to write a testimony of my faith as it is currently and as it had been.
As far as I can remember, I have always prayed and read my Bible to some extent, but through childhood and into my teens my faith had really been a side-line of my life. As I grew and came to see more of the world, worldly things came to the fore in my heart, mind, and actions.

Helped by daily readings
I still considered myself a Christian, accepted (most) of what the Bible said, knew that I was a sinner and prayed about such things, but on leaving for university little had changed in my habits or my faith.
However, at my last service before I left for university, I was given some ‘daily readings’ books (by J. C. Ryle and Alan Redpath) from people in the church. Both these books made the journey to college with me.
Following through these day by day not only led me to read more of the Bible than I had before, but made me think and meditate on what I had read rather than simply getting the reading done.
These chapters often ended in asking questions of the reader’s faith, and knowledge of and relationship with the Lord. And although I agreed with what was said in sentiment, I came to realize that my faith was nowhere near what these writers knew, and came to see how worldly minded I was.
Many of the readings also included prayers, which I began to say with greater sincerity and conviction than I had previously with my own. As such, I prayed seriously and honestly to the Lord to save me from my sin, to increase my faith, and increase my knowledge of and love for him.
Gradually since then, I have felt these prayers being answered. I’m still sometimes troubled by doubts, and still struggle with sin, but my faith, salvation and love for the Lord Jesus, are now very real to me. I feel that I am changed from who I was by the Spirit; and so I’ve asked to be baptised.