by R. L. Morrison

Those who listen to religious broadcasts are well aware that evangelists teach the sinner that he must pray and accept Jesus Christ as a personal Savior. One well known evangelist has a prayer which he says and instructs those who seek salvation to say with him. Those who do so are assured that they have been saved. Many preachers so teach and many people believe what they hear. But is this practice in harmony with Bible teaching? The only way to learn the answer to this question is to study the Bible to find what it teaches about prayer and who should pray. For this study, let us ask a question on the subject and then find the Bible answer. The question of this study is the title "For what should sinners pray?" Many answers are given by men. But what does the Bible teach?

Sinners are told by men to pray for faith. However, no such instruction is to be found in the word of God. In Romans 10:17, Paul wrote: "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." John has also written on this subject: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:30-31). So faith is not obtained by prayer, but rather through a study of the word of God. Authorization to pray for faith is not given in the scriptures.

It is sometimes suggested that sinners should pray for light. This, too, is a violation of God's word. In Psalms 119:130, we read: "The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple." We have the words of God already. We need to allow them to enter our hearts. When we do, they give us light, in that we learn what we must do to be saved. When the Lord appeared to Saul on the Damascus road, He told Saul to go into the city and there it would be told him what he must do. Some think the light and the appearance of Jesus to Saul saved him. But the Lord did not say that, nor did Saul know it. He was in the city three days fasting and praying before Ananias came and spoke the words of the Lord unto him. These words were accepted, believed, taken into his heart. They gave him light. He arose and obeyed, being baptized, by which he called upon the name of the Lord and received the remission of his sins (Acts 22:16). And when God's word effectively enters the heart of a sinner today, it will produce the same result: obedience and forgiveness of sins.

Some are told today to pray for saving grace. But the word teaches us that "the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12). God's grace teaches us. It has appeared to all men. We have it available. We do not need to pray for grace, but rather to practice what it requires of us.

Men do not need to pray to "get religion." Religion is not something someone gets, but rather something one is to do. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). Since we have here a definition of pure religion, we should be able to see it is the practice or doing of righteousness, not something one should pray to get.

That men need to be reconciled to God is not doubted or denied. But reconciliation is not brought about by prayer on man's part, regardless of his sincerity. Paul wrote, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). In the following verse he urges: "Be ye reconciled to God." This is accomplished by receiving the word of reconciliation, the gospel, into the heart and obeying its requirements even as did Saul of Tarsus.

Sinners do not need to pray that God will be willing to save them. God so loved the world, or mankind, that He sent Christ to die on the cross to save the world. Paul wrote, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Tim. 1:15). No man needs to pray that God love him or be willing to save him. God loved long ago. He made provision for our salvation. The need of the sinner is to learn this, and seek the forgiveness of God in God's appointed way. The problem is with men, not God. It is difficult to persuade men to recognize that they are sinners, and stand in need of salvation. The only way this can be accomplished is by preaching the gospel. It is God's power to save. When a sinner fully realizes the final result of his sins, and the love of God for him, he will love God and do His commandments.

Sometimes people pray for pure hearts. There is no doubt that we all need pure hearts. Without pure hearts we cannot see God (Matt. 5:8). But pure hearts are not obtained by prayer, even though God has made arrangements for hearts to be made pure. When Peter was discussing preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, he said, "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8-9). Later the same apostle wrote: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth ..." (1 Peter 1:22). Pure hearts are not obtained by prayer, but by a strong, active faith, which leads one to obey the truth, the gospel. This faith is the result of hearing the word, not the answer to prayer.

Some are told they should pray for the Holy Spirit to touch them or in some way make them aware of God's desire to save them or that they have been saved. Again, the word of God does not so teach. Jesus commanded the apostles to go preach the gospel to every creature. The believer who is baptized shall be saved (Mk. 16:15-16). The reason one must hear the gospel is because it is God's power unto salvation to the believer (Rom. 1:16). God's saving power is in the word, not in a direct operation of the Holy Spirit, or in prayer for anything. All we need to know or do to be saved is revealed to us in the gospel of Christ. Hear it, believe it, obey it, and receive the forgiveness of sins. Then thank God for what He has done for you!

In reality sinners need not pray. The Bible teaches, in language easily understood, that God does NOT hear the prayer of one who is living in sin. In John 9:31 we find the following: "Now we know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." It is true that the man who made the statement was not an apostle or inspired man. But he spoke a truth of the law of Moses, under which he lived. The Pharisees to whom he made the statement did not deny what he said; they simply cast him out of the synagogue. Read the ninth chapter of John.

In the New Testament, the apostle Peter, directed by the Holy Spirit, revealed the same information. "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are opened unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil" (1 Peter 3:12). Usually the phrase "the face of God" signifies the anger of God. Sometimes, though, it refers to "the favor of God". In this passage, it refers to God's anger. The context in which it is used definitely conveys this meaning.

This, of course, is not generally accepted in the religious world today. But regardless of what men may say or think, the Bible sets forth as truth that God does not look or hear with favor those who refuse to do his will. No argument man can make will change in any way what the Bible teaches on this matter!

Have you accepted the gospel of Christ?