Prayer for Salvation

If you came here to pray and be saved, do not read the whole page first. The prayer is directly below. Say it out loud if you can, and mean it rather than getting the words right.

The Salvation Prayer

Lord Jesus,
I believe You are the Son of God, that You died for my sins and that You rose again.
I have lived my own way and I have done wrong. I am sorry, and I am not going to defend it.
Forgive me. Wash me clean.
Come into my life and be my Lord and my Saviour.
I give You what is left of my life, however much that is, and I ask You to make something of it.
Thank You for taking me as I am.
Amen.

If you prayed that and meant it, that is enough. Nothing more is required of you today. There is a section further down on what happens next, and it is worth reading when you are ready.

The Salvation Prayer What You Are Praying Short Prayers The Sinner’s Prayer Salvation and Deliverance For the Salvation of Souls A Catholic Prayer Thanksgiving What Happens Next Bible Verses Questions

What You Are Praying

There is no formula, and no set of words that works better than another. What the prayer above contains is three things, and they are the three things Scripture asks for.

• You admit it. Not a general apology for being human. An honest acknowledgement that you have gone your own way and that it was wrong.
• You believe it. That Jesus is who He said He was, that His death paid for what you did, and that He rose.
• You hand it over. You stop running your own life on your own authority and ask Him to take it.

Salvation is not a reward for having cleaned yourself up first. That is the part people get stuck on, and it is worth being plain about: you do not need to fix anything before you pray. The fixing is what comes after, and it is His work, not yours.

Short Prayers for Salvation

Sometimes the long prayer is more than you can manage. These are complete prayers. Say one.

• Jesus, save me. I am Yours.
• Lord, I believe. Forgive me and take my life.
• God, I have made a mess of it. Come and take over.
• Jesus, I am sorry. Wash me clean and keep me.
• Lord, I do not know how to do this. Save me anyway.
• Father, I want to belong to You. Take me in.

A Simple Prayer of Salvation

God,
I am a sinner and I know it.
I believe Jesus died for me and rose again.
Forgive me, save me, and come into my life.
I am Yours from today.
Amen.

The Sinner’s Prayer

The sinner’s prayer is not a fixed text and it does not appear in the Bible under that name. It is a way of putting into words what the tax collector prayed in Luke 18, which is about as short as prayer gets: God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This is the version most often prayed.

A Sinner’s Prayer

Lord God,
I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself.
I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son, that He died in my place and that You raised Him from the dead.
I turn away from the life I have been living.
Forgive me, and come and live in me by Your Holy Spirit.
Make me new.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.

A word about this, because it comes up. Saying a prayer does not save anyone by itself. What saves is Christ, received in faith. The prayer is how a person says yes to Him. If you are worried you said the wrong words, you did not. The words were never the point.

A Prayer for Salvation and Deliverance

Some people come to this prayer carrying something specific: an addiction, a pattern they cannot break, a fear that has run their life. Salvation and deliverance are not the same thing, but they belong together, and it is right to ask for both.

A Prayer for Salvation and Deliverance

Lord Jesus,
Save me, and then set me free.
You know what has had a hold on me and how long it has had it. I am not going to pretend it is smaller than it is.
By Your cross, break its claim on me.
Where I have opened a door I should not have opened, I close it now in Your name.
Fill the space with Your Holy Spirit so that nothing else moves back in.
Amen.

If something specific is holding on, there are fuller prayers here: prayers for deliverance and prayers for addiction and sobriety.

A Prayer for the Salvation of Souls

For All Who Have Not Yet Come Home

Lord God,
You do not want anyone to be lost.
I pray today for people I will never meet: the ones who have never been told, the ones who were told badly, the ones who have decided against You because of something a Christian did to them.
Reach them by whatever means it takes.
Send someone who will tell them the truth kindly.
And where I am the one who is meant to speak, give me the words and the nerve to use them.
Amen.

If you are praying for one particular person rather than for souls in general, that is a different prayer and we have a page for it: prayers for the salvation of a loved one.

A Catholic Prayer for Salvation

Worth saying plainly: the language of the salvation prayer is largely evangelical, and Catholics coming to this page often find nothing that sounds like their own tradition. The Catholic way of praying the same thing is the act of contrition, prayed in the confessional and outside it.

An Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You,
and I detest all my sins because of Your just punishments,
but most of all because they offend You, my God,
who are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace,
to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.
Amen.

A Prayer for the Grace of Final Perseverance

Lord Jesus,
It is not enough for me to begin well. Keep me to the end.
Hold me in Your grace on the days I do not want to be held.
And at the hour of my death, do not let me be separated from You.
Amen.

In Catholic teaching, saving grace normally comes through the sacraments, and for a serious sin the ordinary route back is confession rather than a private prayer alone. If it has been years, a priest will not be shocked. That conversation is the one part of this that cannot be done from a web page.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Salvation

For What You Did Not Earn

Father,
Thank You that I did not have to be good enough first.
Thank You that You came looking rather than waiting for me to find my own way back.
I did nothing to deserve this and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
Let my life say thank You better than my words do.
Amen.

What Happens Next

Most pages stop at Amen. This is the part that actually matters, and it is short.

You may not feel anything

A lot of people expect a rush and get nothing. That is normal and it is not a verdict on whether it worked. Feelings arrive late and unevenly. What changed is your standing before God, and that does not depend on your mood this afternoon.

Tell one person

Saying it out loud to another human being makes it real in a way that praying alone does not. A Christian friend, a priest, a pastor. If you do not have one, a local church will take the call.

Find a church, then get baptised

Not as an administrative step. Faith is not designed to be carried alone, and every part of the New Testament assumes you are part of a community. Baptism is the public form of what you prayed privately today.

Start reading

Begin with the Gospel of John rather than Genesis. Ten minutes. You are not studying for an exam.

When you get it wrong again

You will, probably this week. That is not evidence the prayer failed. Come back, say sorry, carry on. The relationship is not cancelled by a bad day.

Bible Verses About Salvation

Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Luke 18:13: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 is the verse to hold on to if you are the sort of person who will spend tonight wondering whether you did it properly. It is a gift, and it was never dependent on your performance.

Questions People Ask

What is the best prayer for salvation?

There is no best one, and that is not a dodge. Any prayer that admits wrongdoing, believes Jesus died and rose, and hands your life over is a complete prayer for salvation. The prayer at the top of this page contains those three things. So does “Jesus, save me. I am Yours.”

Is the sinner’s prayer in the Bible?

Not under that name, and not as a set text. What is in the Bible is the pattern behind it: the tax collector in Luke 18 who prayed “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, the thief on the cross who simply asked Jesus to remember him, and Romans 10:9, which says that confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised Him leads to salvation. The prayer is a way of doing what those passages describe.

Do I have to pray the prayer out loud?

No. God is not listening for volume. Saying it aloud helps many people because it makes the decision concrete rather than a passing thought, but a prayer prayed silently in a hospital corridor counts exactly as much.

I prayed it but I do not feel different. Did it work?

Almost certainly, yes. Feeling is the least reliable evidence in the whole of Christian experience. Salvation rests on what Christ did and on your saying yes to it, not on an emotional confirmation. If nothing has shifted after a while, that is worth talking through with a pastor or priest rather than praying the prayer repeatedly hoping for a better result.

Do I need to pray it again if I sin?

No. You confess and carry on, which is what 1 John 1:9 describes. Repraying it every time you fail suggests salvation is something you keep losing and re-earning, and that is not what Scripture teaches. Ask forgiveness for the specific thing, and keep going.

Is there a Catholic prayer for salvation?

Yes, though it is not usually called that. The Catholic equivalent is the act of contrition, and Catholic teaching places saving grace in the sacraments, especially baptism and confession, rather than in a single spoken prayer. There is an act of contrition above, along with a prayer for final perseverance.

What do I do after praying for salvation?

Tell one person, find a church, ask about baptism, and start reading the Gospel of John. Do not wait until you feel qualified. The section above covers this, including what to do the first time you get it wrong again.

Can I pray for someone else to be saved?

Yes, and it is one of the oldest Christian practices there is. It is a different prayer from this one, because you are asking on behalf of someone who has not asked for themselves. We have a page of prayers for the salvation of a loved one, including prayers for an unbelieving husband or wife, for a child, and for a parent.

More Prayers

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