A lot of us have been converted to Jesus by saying the “sinner’s prayer”.  I’ve noticed that in my own life, I’ve had to say that prayer quite a few times!  My life would be changed, but I was soon doing the same things that I had done before that led me to saying that sinner’s prayer.  Why does this keep happening to me?  Is there something that is lacking in my life? I felt the conviction and repented, but why do I keep falling back?

I heard an old preacher tell about watching a video of a giraffe being born.  He described the changes that the mother was undergoing while the baby giraffe was leaving her body and coming into the world with a giant “thud” as it fell about six feet to the ground from the body of the mother.  The preacher told me that it took four hours for that giraffe to be born.  Does it seem likely that a human can be “born again” in four minutes?

Did your preacher say to the congregation, “Just come forward, and receive Christ.  It won’t take long.”  If you believed that and came forward for the sinner’s prayer, do you believe that you were born again at that moment?  To my way of thinking, it really takes quite some time for a person to: 1) Remember his/her sins; 2) Confess them to God, one by one; 3) Truly feel sorry, with tears; 4) Turn from their wicked ways; 5) Learn what is the true nature of Christ; 6) Desire to have that nature; and 7) Live for Christ in that new nature.

I know that this will take some time for a person to undergo these changes, perhaps several  hours, days, weeks.  However, until we do, we are only fooling ourself.  We are not truly serious with God about the conviction that the Holy Spirit has brought upon us.  We may feel a little remorse, but seldom do we really do something about it.  We feel bad about some of the events taking place in our life, say the sinner’s prayer, and Viola WE ARE SAVED.  NOT!

Unless we get serious with God and find out what it means to live a life that pleases God, we are still lost.  Remember, it’s not the people that hear the Word that are saved.  It’s the people that hear the Word, understand it, and obey it that are saved.  Let’s not be guilty of “Confessing our sins“, but not truly believing in our hearts.  That is something that proves itself on the outside by what we do.  We are called to be a holy people. “Without holiness, no person shall see God!”  Being holy is a true mark of a person that has really been born again.

Here are some of the consequences of saying the sinner’s prayer without believing in your heart: http://www.miraclejesus.com/wp/archives/church-has-left-the-people