How Do You Pray the Sinner's Prayer?
Share
Recognizing that everyone has sinned, and making the personal decision to reject a past life and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a monumental decision. The moment someone steps into a relationship with Jesus, their eternal destiny changes. For many, this transition is marked by a prayer.
To help people, many churches, evangelists, and pastors have an outline of a prayer to share with people who want to commit their lives to Christ. Known as the Sinner’s Prayer, this outline is a way for people stepping in the world of faith for the first time to start their relationship with the living God.
What Is the Sinner's Prayer?
The Sinner’s Pray is not a single, uniform prayer. Instead it is an outline, or series of statements, that can be put together in a prayer. While some people come to Christ because they were raised in a Christian household, or had Christian friends and family, and are familiar with prayer, others are unfamiliar with what it means to talk with the living God through prayer.
For someone with this kind of background, knowing what to do to start that relationship can be confusing. After being exposed to the Gospel, if someone begins to have that spark of faith, and want to respond, having a template to follow to start can be helpful.
Usually, the Sinner’s Prayer consists of similar content.
1. Address the Father
2. Acknowledgement of sin
3. Repentance of sin
4. Acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as Savior
5. Admit that nothing can pay for sins except the blood of Jesus
6. Ask for the Holy Spirit to come indwell
7. Praise God for salvation
8. Thank God for salvation
9. Amen
Sample Sinner’s Prayer
Holy Father,
I come before you, admitting that I am a sinner. I do a lot that is wrong or evil. I cannot do anything good in my own power. I need your love and forgiveness. Lord, I am sorry for all the sin that I have committed in my life, and that I know I will commit in the future. I want to live my life for You, doing what is right, and pleasing to You. I need a Savior, because I can never pay the debt that my sin has incurred. Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross, and shedding your blood to pay the price for my sin. I accept that You did this for me, and I ask that You extend Your eternal grace to me. Lord, please transform my heart and my life in Your image, write my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and seal me with the Holy Spirit. I praise You for Your love, Your righteousness, and Your infinite mercy. Thank you for saving my soul.
In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior,
Amen.
What Happens When You Pray the Sinner's Prayer?
The idea of having to say specific words in a specific order to be saved is not something the Bible supports. One of the most important examples of saving faith in the Bible is the thief on the cross. The Gospel of Luke records,
“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:39-43).
Here, the thief acknowledges his sin, turns to Jesus and asks to be remembered, and receives forgiveness from the Lord. He does not say a specific prayer or series of words, but the intention and decisions present in the conversation is the same as the biggest points in the Sinner’s Prayer.
A prayer is the primary way to have a conversation with God. The words themselves have no power without a change in the heart, and being convicted in the heart but not reaching out to God in prayer to start a relationship with Him is also not enough. There must be conviction, repentance, and the start of a new and different relationship with the living God.
How Many Times Should We Pray the Sinner’s Prayer?
The question of whether or not salvation can be lost is something that is still debated. Some denominations believe that once someone is saved, they can never lose their salvation. They cannot grow in their faith, they can stray, but they cannot have their name removed from the Lamb’s Book of Life. They argue that someone who renounces their faith may not have been saved at all. They point to verses that talk about how believers are sealed - “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). They interpret this verse to mean it is possible for someone to be saved, but to grieve the Holy Spirit with sin.
Other denominations believe that someone can lose their salvation, and that it is something that someone must return to the Lord for whenever they sin; they point to verses like the following in Matthew, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
While this debate will continue until the Lord returns, the most important thing to take away is that part of salvation is having an on-going relationship with the living God. Part of maintaining that relationship will be repenting when sin happens, which it inevitably will.
What to Do if You'd Like to Become a Christian
The Bible makes it clear that, “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and need a Savior. Jesus paid the price for the sins of all people because people owe God a debt for their sin that only He could repay. To receive that eternal forgiveness, a person needs to understand:
1. God is real.
2. God loves you.
3. Everyone sins. No one is perfect.
4. God is righteous and no one can be good enough to be in His presence.
5. To have a relationship with God, we need to atone for our sins.
6. Jesus - the Son of God - lived a sinless life, died for the sins of everyone, and rose again from the dead.
7. God’s forgiveness is free and available to anyone who believes.
8. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Believing that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, and confessing that He is Lord is the crucial step a person takes towards an eternal relationship with God. He is always waiting, reaching, and working in the lives of sinners so they will repent. God’s grace is infinite.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Interested in learning more about becoming a Christian? Check out these articles:
Can We Really Come to God “Just as We Are”?
How Do I Know I'm Really Saved?
The Sinner's Prayer - 4 Examples for Salvation
Sources
Fares, Alex. For My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation The Christian Doctrine of Salvation. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.
Graham, Billy. How to Become a Christian (Ats) (Pack of 25). Wheaton: Crossway, 2016.
Lewis, C.S. How to Be a Christian Reflections and Essays. New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 2018.
Photo credit: Unsplash/J Waye Covington
Bethany Verrett is a freelance writer who uses her passion for God, reading, and writing to glorify God. She and her husband have lived all over the country serving their Lord and Savior in ministry. She has a blog on graceandgrowing.com.