SALVATION PRAYER
"THE SINNER'S PRAYER"

Do you want to know God?

The sinner's prayer is a Christian term for a prayer that is said when someone wants to repent of their sin, ask God for forgiveness and state belief in the life, death, and saving resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says that “if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” 

Millions have come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ through church services, friends, and family leading them in a salvation prayer.  However, it is not the words in a prayer that save. Jesus Christ alone has the power to save through faith.  Do not put the emphasizes on reading the words, but more from your heart to get hold of salvation the repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Do you yearn to experience the Lord’s comforting presence, power, and wisdom?
That’s good because God loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you forever.

The problem is . . .
One thing separates you from a relationship with God—sin. You and I sin whenever we fail to live by the Lord’s holy standard. In fact, Romans 3:23  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Furthermore, Romans 6:23 explains that the penalty for sin is death—separation from God in hell forever. No matter how hard we try, we cannot save ourselves or get rid of our sins. We can’t earn our way to heaven by being good, going to church, or being baptized (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Understanding how helpless we are because of our sins, God sent His only Son, Jesus, to save us.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Romans. 5:8). Three days later, He rose from the dead—showing that He had triumphed over sin and death once and for all.

So how can you know God?
It all starts with accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ provides a relationship with the Father and eternal life through His death on the cross and resurrection (Romans 5:10).

If you have not yet begun your personal relationship with God, understand that the One who created you loves you no matter who you are or what you’ve done. He wants you to experience the profound depth of His care.

What is the so-called Salvation Prayer?

What do I do to get "saved?"

At one point or another, we all ask ourselves this question.
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) .

" Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." (John 3:3).

Salvation Prayer - Back to Basics
The Salvation Prayer is merely a road to rebirth in Jesus Christ. To be born again you must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that He is. When you ask Him into your heart, you are allowing Him to be the Lord of your life.

So, let's get back to the basics!
A. Salvation is the "permission slip" to enter heaven when you leave this world.

B. Salvation takes place when a person listens to the salvation message, believes it, and makes a decision to receive Jesus into his or her heart.

Salvation Prayer - The Simple Steps:
1. Acknowledge in your heart that Jesus is Lord.

2. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

3. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised from the dead.

4. Repent of your sins and get baptized in the name of Jesus.

Salvation Prayer - Merely a Tool to Communicate Our Faith
The Salvation Prayer is not a ritual based on specific words. This is not the power of a prayer, but the power of truly committing our lives to Christ as Savior and Lord. The following is merely a guideline for our sincere step of faith:

"God, I recognize that I have not lived my life for You up until now. I have been living for myself, and that is wrong. I need You in my life; I want You in my life. I acknowledge the completed work of Your Son Jesus Christ in giving His life for me on the cross at Calvary, and I long to receive the forgiveness you have made freely available to me through this sacrifice. Come into my life now, Lord. Take up residence in my heart and be my king, my Lord, and my Savior. From this day forward, I will no longer be controlled by sin, or the desire to please myself, but I will follow You all the days of my life. Those days are in Your hands. I ask this in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen."

If you decided to repent of your sins and receive Christ today, welcome to God's family. Now, as a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.

• Get water baptized as commanded by Christ. Discover more on water baptism here.
• Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ.
• Spend time with God each day. It does not have to be a long period of time. Just develop the daily habit of praying to Him and reading His Word. Ask God to increase your faith and your understanding of the Bible.
• Encourage you to have a Bible reading plan to follow, check it out here and our Bible reading and studying methods here.
• Seek fellowship with other followers of Jesus. Develop a group of believing friends to answer your questions and support you. See a 100 Reasons why you should go to Church here.
• Find a local bible believing Church where you can worship God. What should you look for in a Church here.
  Find a Church near you, Request contact information on caring Churches in your area here.
  Connect with us with any questions here.
  “A safe place to explore questions about life or God.”
• Request a Pastor's visit in your area here.

In terms of salvation, you cannot separate faith and repentance, both happen simultaneously. In order to be saved, you must place faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and that faith decision requires a change of mind (repentance) about your way of life. Yet many people mistakenly believe they must change their way of living long before they can make a faith decision for the Savior. The truth is, repentance does not mean that we must completely change our ways and “clean ourselves up” so we can receive Christ as Lord.

If you’re holding off on a decision for Christ until you think you are “ready” or “worthy,” you’re waiting in vain. Jesus is ready to receive you right now. Only as a child of God will you find the power—His power—to truly become the person you were created to be.

---

Sinner's Prayer From Scriptures - King David - Psalm 51: 1 -13

v1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
v2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
v3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
v4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge.
v5 Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
v6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
v7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
v8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
v9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
v10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
v11 Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
v12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
v13 Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You.
v14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
v15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
v16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
v17 My sacrifice, O God, is[  a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

No matter how much a man tries to reform himself, he can never achieve the newness of life that God wants him to have in Christ.  Although a man can make changes in his life, even positive changes, he still remains the same person and often goes from one kind of problem to another.

Only our Compassionate God can give us new life.

The Bible teaches that we can achieve newness of life only one way.  We need the help of the Holy Spirit.  King David understood this very well.  He had an affair with a woman and had her husband killed so he could marry her.  But David could not escape his sin.  When the whole mess became public, he threw himself on the mercy of God.  In Psalm 51 we have David’s personal prayer to God.  But this prayer is our prayer also.  In this Psalm, we confess that we are unable to be the kind of people God wants us to be.  We also confess that only God can make us the kind of people He wants us to be.

David said, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I ." Some of these words have hit me the hardest: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."

What about the man David killed? What about the people we sin against? Don't they count? Of course, they do! We sin against God alone because we do sin against each other.  When we gossip, or speak out angry words, or insults or hurt other people in any other way, we sin against God.

Only God can Forgive Sin, Create A Clean Heart and Give Us Joy.

David shows us in his prayer how God takes away that sin.  "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." In the Old Testament, they used hyssop to sprinkle both blood and water on the people to cleanse them from sin and impurity.  Immediately this draws our attention to our own salvation.  In our asking Jesus our life, our impurities were washed away, and the blood of Jesus Christ was poured out for us to atone for our sin. 

David continues, "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity."  What does David mean by saying these bones that you have crushed?  Shepherds used to break the legs of wandering sheep.  This meant that the shepherd would have to feed the sheep personally.  Soon the sheep would learn to love and trust the shepherd.  In sorrow, God leads us closer to Jesus.  In Jesus God has hidden his face from our sins.  He has turned His anger away from us and turned it toward His son, for our sake.  In Jesus, all our iniquity has been blotted out. We can rejoice because now we know that Jesus has forgiven us. 

David prays, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." These are the words that teach us how God plans to change us.  First, God must give us a new heart.  The heart stands for the person's whole life.  Jesus tells us that it is from the heart whence all evil springs.  We need a heart transplant. 

God then gives us a new spirit.  It is a spirit that believes and trusts God.  It is a spirit that understands the depth of God’s love poured out for sinners.  We also need a spirit that will lead us and enable us to withstand temptation.  The normal human spirit is not strong enough.  That new heart and steadfast spirit is given to us when we accepted Jesus.  We pray that God would stay with us.  We especially pray that God would not take His Holy Spirit from us.  His Spirit gives us eternal life.  Without it, we die eternally.

Conclusion:    We cannot hope to be holy unless God stays close to us.  God does this as His Word is preached and we read the Bible and pray and have Christian fellowship at a local Church..  Jesus prayed for His disciples, "Father, make them holy by the truth.  Your word is truth." He also told His disciples that He was giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them.  We don't need self-help books to be better.  We need the Holy Spirit opening up our hearts and minds to what God says.  Daily he restores us creating a clean heart within us and giving us His Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. More on the Holy Spirit here.

Prayer    Holy Spirit give us greater faith than ever before as we hear about the good things Jesus has done for us so that we will be able to stand up against temptation.  Forgive us for thinking that we can live holy lives without any help from You.  Give us a greater love for the Bible and walking obediently and serving You the rest of our lives.  Amen.

Much More on Prayer here.
Prayers of the Bible here.
Prayers of the Old & New Testament here.

Recommend checking out the Lord's Prayer here.

SHARE YOUR STORY HERE

Yes, I have decided to follow Jesus.

Yes, I am already a Christian.

Still, have Questions?

Let us know your Decision here.

Home All Topics Bible Study Methods

Chat With Us Press Here

  Questions God Menu