3 Reasons to Remember Your Baptism

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Do you remember your baptism? Feeling the Living Waters wash your sins clean and the Holy Spirit filling your soul? Committing your life to Christ, asking for forgiveness, repenting of all your sins, and asking God’s help to live a better life?

Was it a holy and life-changing experience for you?

Or, maybe not?

Maybe you were baptized as a child and don’t remember much.

Maybe you were baptized because it was the thing to do, but you didn’t fully appreciate the significance.

Or, maybe you did have some understanding of the power of that moment…

Keeping the promises and power of your baptism fresh in your memory helps you stay firm in your commitment to follow Jesus. 

Let’s look now at three reasons to remember your baptism as the starting point for living a visible faith, that reflects Jesus in this world and draws others closer to him.

3 Reasons to Remember Your Baptism 

1) Through baptism we die to sin and start fresh in a life with Jesus.

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. (Romans 6:1-4 NLT)

Your baptism is the turning point where you formally renounce your sin and give your life over to Jesus. Your sins are washed clean and you are made new, sealed as Christ’s own forever. You can begin to live a new life, not to willfully continue doing wrong and asking forgiveness, but trying to live according to the teachings of Jesus, with God’s help.

You can reaffirm your commitment to Jesus at any time. 

Repent of your sins and ask Jesus to wash you clean. 

Commit to living a life in him and to follow his teachings in all things, with God’s help.

2) We are baptized in water to reflect the cleansing and purification of our conscience.

and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (1 Peter 3:21 NIV)

The water of your baptism is a powerful symbol of being washed clean. Peter describes it as symbolic of the waters of the great flood that washed away everyone except Noah and the seven other faithful members of his family. It symbolizes a cleansing, but also our promise to God to live with a clean conscience.

Whether you were fully immersed or just had water sprinkled on your head, the waters of your baptism washed away the old and made you new. 

You renounced evil. 

You confirmed your belief in God. 

You agreed to follow in the teachings of Jesus. 

Your sins were washed away and you were made clean.

When you see water, remember how the waters of your baptism washed away the old and made you new in Christ.

3) We are filled with the Holy Spirit who guides us as we strive to live a better life.

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 NIV)

At your baptism, you were not only washed clean but filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within you and is your guide. He leads you, equips you, prays for you, encourages you, warns you, and is your inner compass to keep you on the right path. (Click here for more on the Holy Spirit.)

What a powerful gift you’re given through baptism if only you’ll remember it and call upon the power of the Holy Spirit within you to be your guide.

How to Remember Your Baptism

Let the sound and feel of water remind you of your baptism.

Anytime you feel or hear flowing water, take a minute to remember your baptism and give thanks that you’re filled with the Living Waters of Jesus. In the shower, in the rain, while you’re washing dishes, remember your baptism.

Water reminds you that you’re saved by God’s grace, set apart of Christ’s own, and filled with the Holy Spirit. You have everything you need to allow God to fill your heart with his love and help you live a vibrant and visible faith.

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38 NIV)

Thanksgiving for the Waters of Baptism

The Book of Common Prayer has a beautiful prayer of Thanksgiving over the Water. You can pray this prayer to be reminded of your baptism when you see water, reaffirming your commitment to living as God’s child.

We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.

We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, I thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon me your servant the forgiveness of sin, and have raised me to the new life of grace. Sustain me, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give me an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.

[This post is part of the Visible Faith series. Click here to learn more about this series on how to live a vibrant, visible faith.]