Receiving Jesus VS. Professing Jesus

There is a huge difference in actually accepting Jesus as your personal savior, and solely professing to know Jesus. By receiving Jesus into your heart, I mean, asking Him for forgiveness and dedicating your life to Him. By professing Jesus, I mean, a person is simply saying that they know God, when they truly don't. Or in other words, putting on a fake to the world. I have personal experience in both of these.

When I was around twelve, I got under conviction. God was drawing me to Him one night at Bible School, and the teacher prayed with me, and after the prayer, I thought that I was saved, simply because I went through the process of praying to God. I professed to everyone that I accepted Jesus into my heart, but in reality, I hadn't at all. At the time, I didn't really understand what it was to get saved. I knew that I needed salvation, but I didn't fully understand the severity of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. So, needless to say, nothing changed in my life. I continued living in my sin, and God was clearly not present in my life. For a long time, I told the world I was saved because I didn't want them to think badly of me, and I wanted to believe that I was saved. Though, this was only taking away chance after chance of me getting truly right with God. Thankfully, God kept giving me opportunities to get saved, and thank God, I accepted Jesus on March 31st, 2011. After I did get saved, and I committed my life to God, which wasn't instant, I saw everything in such a new light.

I think that a huge problem in Christianity is that people are fooled by the world and the devil into believing that they are saved when they really aren't. I was fooled for about 3 years, believing that I was saved, and it was completely my fault. I let my emotions and the devil convince me that I was okay with God, but me saying that I was saved didn't do anything. When I accepted Jesus, and gave my life to Him, that is when I got saved. 

There's so many beliefs on how a person gets saved, but there's only one way. A person must accept Jesus into their heart if they want God to be in their life. There's not going to be any change until this happens.

Romans 10:9-10 - "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

I personally was so amazed by the change that I experienced. After I professed to getting saved, I was so confused why nothing changed, and why God wasn't working in my life. When I committed myself to God, I saw drastic changes to obstacles that I never thought I would overcome. A major obstacle being, saying 'I love you.' I've never been the most loving, but because Jesus showed me love, I am now doing the same.  

Before becoming truly saved, I was lost in the world of sin. I had no joy for God, no desire to read my bible or pray, and I certainly wasn't thankful towards God. The desire didn't come until the salvation was real. With salvation comes a love for God and a want to live for Him. Until Jesus is accepted into a person's heart, the real effects of a Christian relationship with God will not happen.