Sinner's Prayer

**followerofjesus** · July-5th-2012, 10:00 AM

After sharing the Gospel with someone, and they are ready to repent and believe, do you lead them in a "sinner's prayer", or let them seek after God on their own? This has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm not really sure how to handle it anymore. After sharing the Gospel and the person was ready, the next logical step for me was to lead them in a prayer, but now, I'm not so sure. I know that people can be saved through being lead in prayer, but they could also wind up trusting in that prayer to save them instead of trusting in the finished work of Jesus. I was just wondering what everyone elses thoughts were on this.

caleb_matthau · July-10th-2012, 01:24 PM

I googled "what is wrong with the sinners' prayer" and came up with this one url which is quite to the point. What’s Wrong With The Sinner’s Prayer by A.W. Tozer « The Cross Is All

**Carl** · July-10th-2012, 04:03 PM

All I can say is that when my time came I was alone. I was reading a book about a person getting saved after he became an adult. His story did not include anything about confessing sin to God when praying for Christ. Yet when I prayed I confessed many sins that I had committed. So I somehow knew. This is probably one of those things that need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to do the job right.

I once heard of a motorcyclist that had been witnessed to that prayed something like this, "God if you are real show yourself to me in a way that I will recognize could only come from You. Don't remember how God answered that prayer save that God did answer and the motorcyclist did accept Salvation.

**followerofjesus** · July-11th-2012, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by caleb_matthau

I googled "what is wrong with the sinners' prayer" and came up with this one url which is quite to the point. What’s Wrong With The Sinner’s Prayer by A.W. Tozer « The Cross Is All

The points in that article are pretty much what I have been thinking about. There is no doubt, many have been truly saved by repeating a sinner's pray, but I just fear that it can create false assurances, especially when the person doesn't truly understand salvation and they are only saying it because the person next to them is. I've been in churches where the pastor will present the Gospel, and then tell everyone in the congregation to "repeat this pray after me, and if it's the first time you've said it and you mean it with all of your heart, then you are saved". Is it our job to assure someone of their salvation, or should we leave that to the Holy Spirit?

**IamPJ** · July-15th-2012, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by caleb_matthau

I googled "what is wrong with the sinners' prayer" and came up with this one url which is quite to the point. What’s Wrong With The Sinner’s Prayer by A.W. Tozer « The Cross Is All

Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I've also wondered about the "sinner's prayer". We do this at church after every service. After some say it they will go forward saying they've accepted Christ. This makes me wonder about the whole idea of the way we do this.

**mattfivefour** · July-15th-2012, 12:10 PM

It is what is in the heart that brings us to the acceptance of God's rich salvation in Christ, not what issues from our lips alone. If a person truly recognizes their need, truly recognizes Christ as who He is, and truly repents, then whatever he or she says (or even deeply thinks) is all that is required to be born again. A "sinner's prayer" can help such a person express their heart belief. The downside is that a prayer like that, repeated by someone as by rote, can give someone who is not truly repentant a false assurance that they have been saved. Tozer was absolutely correct.