Our routines say a lot about us. Consider mine.  At night I check my alarm multiple times for fear of reliving the morning when I woke up at 6:50 and made it to work (23 minutes away) by 7:37. In the morning I check and recheck to ensure my flat-iron is not smoldering. On the days I buy coffee, I verify my wallet is in my purse, so the caffeine-deprived beast doesn’t appear. And, when I leave my car, I yank the handle several times to be certain it is locked.

After these examples, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that when I was a child, did the same thing when it came to the salvation prayer. I secretly said it over and over. Just to be sure.

Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. Thank you for dying for me. Please save me. I want to be with you in Heaven when I die.

As I look back, I believe my repetitive prayers were heartfelt, and I was saved. But during a Good Friday service the year I was in seventh grade, I experienced conviction. I needed to let people know I wanted to follow Christ, and I needed to let him be Lord of my life. Not just a secret Savior.

The Saturday night before Easter, I told my mom I wanted to follow Jesus. She found my dad, and they prayed with me. That Easter was a special one.

The prayer with my parents was my first step in acknowledging Jesus in front of other people, and I believe it was God beginning the process of becoming Lord of my life. This meant, and still means, loving him, obeying him, getting to know him, serving him, and sharing the gospel with others.

Once we ask Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and accept him as our personal Savior, there is no need to compulsively repeat the salvation prayer. We will spend eternity with him. However, we have to remember Jesus wants to be our Savior and our Lord.

Luke 12:8-9

I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.