Prayer of Salvation
If you have considered and counted the cost of following Jesus Christ and are willing to forsake all you have and are to follow Him then proceed to read on.
The Word of God declares in Romans 10:8-13, “But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” If you make the confession with your mouth and believe with all your heart that the Lord Jesus Christ died and shed His blood on a cross for your sins and the God raised Him from the dead you too can obtain salvation.
Right now, read the prayer and with words similar to mine call upon the Lord with all your heart with your own words. Please feel free to use the words I have written if you need to. Just be sure you agree with the intent and mean them with all your heart as you repeat them.
Father God, I confess that I am a sinner deserving of death and Hell, and being eternally separated from You (Rom.3:9-20; 2 Pet. 2:1-11; Rev.20:11-15; 21:27). I believe You sent your Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross and that He shed His blood for my sins and that He was raised from the dead for my justification and restored my fellowship with You (Luke 22:19-20; John 6:40; Rom.4:23-25; 5:17-19; Gal.4:4-7; 1 John 4:7-10). I repent and turn from my sin, selfishness, self centered pride, and arrogance. I have counted the cost and have determined to submit myself to You and live my life surrendered in obedience to You for the rest of my life (Mark 1:15; Luke 14:33; Acts 3:19; 17:30-31; 26:20; Rom.2:5-11; 16:25-26; Rev.2:5; 3:3, 19). I ask You Lord Jesus to come into my heart and save me. I confess you as the Lord of my life and I ask You Lord Jesus Christ to take my life and make me into what You want me to be. Deliver me and set me free from all sin, so that I may serve and obey You as the Lord of my life. Thank you for Your free gift of eternal life so that I may spend all eternity with You (Rom. 6:23). In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
If you cried out to the Lord with all your heart you can be sure He heard your cry.
You must learn to seek the Lord with all your heart on a daily basis and develop an intimate relationship with Him (Jer.29:13-14). You must seek to keep your heart right with the Lord by confessing the sins you have committed to Him daily (1 John 1:9). By doing so you will learn to keep your list of sins short and learn to live free from the guilt and condemnation of sin (Rom.8:1-17). Keeping your heart free from willful sin will enable you to receive His grace (His divine influence upon your heart) that transforms you heart and empowers you to obey Him (Rom.6:14). Those who take hold of His precious promises may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4). The Word of God declares in 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Those who hold to the hope of salvation and to His return the Word of God in 1 John 3:3 says, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I want to encourage you to walk as close as you can to the Lord and experience the abundant life in Christ (John 10:10). Many who fail to walk closely with the Lord and fallen into the trap of going through the motions of dead, lifeless and cold religion, or they return to a life style of sin and eventually completely fall away (Mark 4:13-20).
In the book of John 14:21 Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” 1 John 3:9 says, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” Those who truly love the Lord will walk in habitual obedience instead of continuing to walk in habitual disobedience since they have the Holy Spirit indwelling them (Rom. 8:1-11; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; 2 Cor. 6:11-7:1). In other words, true faith results in obedience to the Lord, otherwise we are endanger of deceiving ourselves according to James 1:22 that says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” I encourage you to learn to walk in obedience to the Lord by learning to live a surrendered life to the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8:14 the Word of God says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
The Plan of Salvation
Our Creator, God the Father, purposed in His Son Jesus Christ the plan of salvation to redeem mankind from their fallen state. This plan of salvation was already in place before time began to reconcile us back to Himself and to restore our relationship with Him. God’s plan to redeem fallen man and restore our relationship with Him begins in the Book of Genesis 3:15. It is here we see a glimpse of His plan for the future of mankind which offers hope in the midst of judgment. God offers us hope through the first prophecy concerning the promise of a Messiah who was to come through the seed of women (Gen. 3:15). The first prophecy reveals the beginning of God’s plan of salvation as we see God Himself taking the initiative to reveal His plan to restore those in sin back to Himself. God in His great love for Adam and Eve took the initiative to cover their sins by shedding the blood of innocent animals and to provide them with animal skins to cover themselves. Under the first covenant or the old covenant the sacrifice of animals was a temporary covering for sin, but could not remove the sins of mankind. God gives us a clear picture or a fore shadow of the initiative God would take in providing the appropriate sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die and shed His blood for the sins of mankind because the blood of animals could not take away our sins or remove our sins from us. The word of God in the book of Hebrews 10:4, tells us, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.”
The plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was His plan even before time began, before anything that was made was made. In the book of Titus we learn of the plan of salvation before the beginning of time, as it is stated in Titus 1:1-2, “accord to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;” And again in the book of 2 Timothy 1:8-10, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, “ Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” The plan of salvation in Christ alone was before the foundation of the world before time began (Eph.1:4; 1 Pet.1:20). In the book of Genesis we see the first prophesy concerning the Messiah who would eventual reveal the plan of salvation. It is here in the Book of Genesis that we see clear imagery, symbolic of our redemption in Christ, in which we would see eventually take place in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the good news for mankind that God sent is Son Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, who was impregnated by the Holy Spirit of God to redeem fallen man. Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth in the likeness of mankind and lived among us taking the form of a bondservant (Phil. 2:7). He grew up and lived a perfect and sinless life to die on a cross for us, shedding His blood for our sins of mankind (Heb 4:15). He became our substitute sacrifice on the cross taking our place to redeem us and provide the atonement to restore and reconcile us to God. In Hebrews 9:12, “Not with the blood of goats and calve, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” And again in Hebrews 9:15, “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” We must be listening to hear His call to come to Him to receive His forgiveness for our sins and eternal salvation. We must choose to accept His sacrificial death on the cross and the shedding of His blood for our sins to receive His forgiveness and eternal life. Having accepted God’s provision in Jesus Christ our Savior we receive the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. When we accept His sacrifice as our Savior, we make Him not only our Savior, but also Lord of our lives. We must continue our relationship with Him as the Lord of our lives and walk in obedience to His word. We must live a life of continual surrender yielded to His Lordship out of an intimate relationship with Him. Do you here Him calling you? Will you accept what He done for you, or will you reject Him and His offer of forgiveness and salvation?