This is a prayer for the person who believes in Jesus and still lies awake wondering whether it took. It is built in seven short movements, and each movement rests on a verse from the Bible, so that what you say to God is anchored to what He has already said. You are not asked to work up a feeling. You are asked to take God at His word, out loud, in your own voice.
The prayer is written in the first person because it is yours to pray, not ours to pray at you. Read the verse first, then the prayer that follows it, then say it again in your own words if the words on the page do not fit your mouth. Go slowly. There is no rush, and God is not impatient. If you have never prayed before and the whole idea feels strange, how to pray when you never have will help you begin; then come back here.
First, come honestly
Assurance cannot grow in a heart that is hiding something from God. David, who had a great deal to hide, ended one of his psalms by asking God to look anyway.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting. — Psalm 139:23-24
Pray: Father, I am coming to You as I am, not as I wish I were. Search me. You already know my heart better than I do, so I am not going to pretend. Show me what is in me, the fear and the sin and the doubt, and lead me in the way that lasts. I am here, and I am not hiding.
Second, confess what is there
Much of the doubt about salvation is really unconfessed sin sitting on the conscience. God has given a plain promise about what happens when it is brought into the light.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:9
Pray: Lord, I confess to You the things I would rather not say. (Pause here and name them, quietly and specifically, one by one.) I am not confessing to persuade You to forgive me. You have said You are faithful and just to forgive, and I am taking You at Your word. Cleanse me from all of it, not only the parts I remember.
Third, come to Jesus and trust that He receives you
The core of assurance is not that you held on to Jesus well but that He receives everyone who comes. He said so Himself.
Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away. — John 6:37
Pray: Lord Jesus, I am coming to You. I do not know how well I came the first time, or whether my motives were clean, or whether I said the right words. I am coming now. You said You would never drive away the one who comes, and I am the one who comes. I am trusting that promise more than I trust my memory of my own faith.
Fourth, rest in what God has said about the Son
John wrote his first letter so that believers could know they had eternal life, and he located that life in a Person rather than a performance.
And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. — 1 John 5:11-12
Pray: Father, You have said that eternal life is in Your Son, and that whoever has the Son has life. I believe in Jesus. I have received Him. I am not going to build my confidence on anything else, not on my feelings, not on my record, not on how sure I sound. Whoever has the Son has life. I have the Son. I rest there.
If the words “I have the Son” catch in your throat, do not force them. Instead, go back to the third movement and pray it again. Coming to Jesus is how a person comes to have Him, and there is no other qualification.
Fifth, ask for the Spirit’s witness
God does not leave believers with a promise on a page alone. He gives His Spirit, and the Spirit speaks to the believer’s own spirit about belonging.
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. — Romans 8:16
Pray: Holy Spirit, You testify with the spirits of God’s children that they belong to Him. I am asking You to do that in me. Teach me to call God my Father and mean it. Make the promises I have just prayed feel less like words on a page and more like the truth about my life. I am not demanding a feeling; I am asking You to do what Scripture says You do, in Your way and in Your time.
Sixth, hold on while doubting
Assurance is not the absence of doubt. It is knowing who holds you while you doubt. Paul, writing from prison near the end of his life, put his confidence in a Person rather than in his own steadiness.
For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day. — 2 Timothy 1:12
Pray: Lord, I do not know everything, and I cannot answer every question, but I know whom I have believed. I have entrusted myself to You. When the doubt comes back tomorrow, and it may, remind me that You are able to guard what I have handed over. I am choosing to trust Your ability to keep me over my ability to keep myself.
If doubt is a daily companion, why doubt is not the same as unbelief will show you how much company you have in Scripture.
Seventh, commit the future to Him
The last movement looks forward. The believer’s confidence about tomorrow rests on the same ground as their confidence about today: God’s faithfulness, not their own.
being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:6
Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. — Hebrews 10:23
Pray: Father, You began this. I did not start it and I cannot finish it. You have said You will carry it on to completion, and I am asking You to do that in me until the day of Christ. Help me hold resolutely to the hope I profess, not because my grip is strong but because You who promised are faithful. I give You today, and tomorrow, and the end. Amen.
How to use this prayer
Pray it once, slowly, all the way through, today. Read each verse aloud before the prayer that follows it; hearing the promise in your own voice does something that silent reading does not.
Then pray it again over the coming week, one movement per day. On day one, only the first movement and its verse. On day two, the second. By the end of the week you will have the shape of the prayer, and many of the verses, by heart.
When a particular fear surfaces, go to the movement that answers it. Guilt goes to the second. Fear that you came to Jesus wrongly goes to the third. Fear of the future goes to the seventh.
Pray it with someone else at least once. Assurance was never meant to be worked out alone, and a friend from church who prays this with you will often see what God is doing in you before you can. If you do not yet have a church, how to find a church is the place to start.
Keep the Bible open beside it. The prayer is only as strong as the verses it stands on, and the verses are stronger than the prayer.
The prayer is not the point
None of these words save anyone. Jesus saves, and He saves those who come to Him and trust Him. The prayer is a way of coming and trusting, out loud, with Scripture in your hand. If it helps you do that, it has done its work. If you finish it and still feel unsure, you have not failed; feelings and assurance are different things, and assurance and feelings are not the same thing explains why. Come back tomorrow and pray it again. The One you are praying to is not going anywhere.
