How to be saved

The Bible says we have all sinned and we are separated from God, and there is nothing we can do to bridge the gap between us and Him. So Jesus came to die for our sins and be raised from the dead, to give us eternal life. Our part is to confess our sins and trust in Him for salvation.

Personally, I grew up in church and I went along with a sinner’s prayer led by someone else when I was 6 years old. Years later, I said sinner’s prayers multiple times, but there was a problem — I still saw myself as a good person. And saying a sinner’s prayer doesn’t help if we think that we are not actually that bad. It is only an empty ritual.

In Luke 18:10–14, Jesus described the right attitude to have. A man cried out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” and he was forgiven. It’s about being convicted of your sins and admitting that you need God’s mercy to forgive you and change you.

He doesn’t want us to point out some good things we’ve done as reasons that He should forgive us. He wants us to come admitting that we are poor. Jesus said, “blessed are the poor in spirit.” We have to put our trust in Jesus alone, not ourselves.

Romans 10 says “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” and “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Calling with your mouth- that’s like what Jesus said in the other passage about the man who called out for mercy.

So based on these verses, I believe that ideally your prayer should be out loud, as a way to express what is on your heart. Or even as a way to help it sink in, because when you hear yourself saying something out loud, it feels different from a silent thought.

When I say let it sink in, there are places in the Bible we see that concept, for example Matthew 13 where Jesus talked about the types of ground, and the good ground bears fruit.

Personally I think the truth about Jesus and myself didn’t sink in until I was 15, because that time when I prayed to trust Jesus as Savior, I immediately knew there was a change. There was no emotional experience, but something changed, and ever since then I’ve seen God working in my heart and life.