Simple Prayer Of Salvation
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The Christian prayer for salvation is one of the most difficult concepts for many religious people to accept because of its simplicity. Religion has often been described as man climbing a ladder, attempting to get to God. Human beings are prone by our very nature to assume that if enough prayers are said, enough candles have been lighted, enough good deeds are done, all taxes are paid and faithfulness to a spouse is forever maintained, God has got to like that and eternal bliss is assured when death arrives. It makes sense, after all, that God helps those who help themselves, right? But that quote we have all heard is not in the Judeo-Christian tradition and cannot be found in either the Old or New Testament. But somehow, many people talk themselves into believing that its really all about keeping track of the good things versus the bad things a person does, and like the scales of justice, if the good deeds and good thoughts outweigh the bad, then open up those gates of heaven 'cause I'm comin' in! But here is a good opportunity to stop and ask, "Just how many good deeds does it take?"
The simple prayer of salvation is based on an incredible truth: as far as God is concerned, a person can never, ever, ever do enough good acts, practice enough good deeds or think enough decent thoughts to be eligible to spend eternity in a place that Jesus described as being both a lot like life here, but also very much unlike life here. There will be an overwhelming sense of family, and it won't have any characteristics of the dysfunctional stuff we experience every day. No tears, no night, no pain, no aging, no jealousy, no death, no bad dreams or memories of those not with us. We will have full knowledge of all things, and we will probably end up saying things like, "Wow, so that's why that happened," or "Hmmm, I always wondered how that worked." But to get there, everyone has to admit that they can't jump to Cuba. That's actually part of the Christian prayer for salvation and forgiveness, in a backward sort of way.
Suppose everyone in the world were invited to come to Key West and try to jump from the last possible piece of land on that key for a billion dollar prize. Come on now, this is serious! Some optimists will go back two blocks to try and jump, and others will just be rational and put their toes in the water and do one little bunny hop. The result of course is already known. A rational person will admit that he or she cannot jump to Cuba. The simple prayer of salvation uttered by Christians includes the understanding that as hard as any of us tries, every plan we ever hatch in our minds to get to heaven someday will fail if any part of that plan has anything to do with our attempts at being good enough to get in. The Christian prayer of salvation is based on many New Testament verses, but for this blog consider the following: "For by grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
People are "saved" or kept from eternal punishment by faith in what Jesus Christ did at the cross. God gave the Ten Commandments to us for one reason: to show how sinful we are. In other words, if a person could keep all of the Ten Commandments all of their lives, in both thought and deed, then they could be saved. But break any one of them just once, then heaven becomes Cuba as far as getting there is concerned. A person needs a boat, a bridge, a submarine, a plane, a hot air balloon, or something to get to Cuba. Jesus Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection becomes our boat, our bridge, our plane to heaven. So a simple prayer of salvation includes admitting that we get to heaven, saved from hell, by putting faith in Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection as payment for the inability to keep all the Ten Commandments every day of our lives. The writer says God has given us heaven as a gift simply by belief in the right person that God declared to be our substitute for our sins.
As far as God is concerned, sin is so awful, so unlike Him, that blood had to be shed, but it wouldn't be ours, but His. Is that a gift or what? And the writer Paul is so right. If salvation were really up to how many works we had to do, we could one day walk through the gates of heaven with just a little pride that somehow our hard work and tenaciousness got us there. "God you're pretty lucky I'm here. So the Christian prayer for salvation will include the following things:
1. Admission that a person is a real, bona fide sinner and often it helps to just stop and list a bunch of them because God knows anyway. 2. Acceptance that Jesus Christ is the only bridge back to God, no matter how many people might say the way to God has many paths. 3. A true repentance of sin, which means turning around and going the opposite direction from where a person was. 4. A thankful heart that God gave a very simple way back to Him. Yep, a lot of people get tripped by the childlike approach to the simple prayer of salvation and reject the whole truth out of hand because of the belief that getting to heaven ought to be a little more complicated than that. There are a lot of people who are willing to give a person their version of the Christian prayer for salvation, but why not let this one be a do it yourselfer?
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