Is saying a little prayer enough? How many times have you said that prayer, asking Jesus to come into your heart? How many times have you confessed your sins? Was it sufficient to keep you from sliding into sin again and again and again?

Being saved is not like a flu injection. You dont just say a magical prayer and you are saved. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Paul was talking to the church when he said this. Why would he say this to the church if praying a prayer was enough to be saved? If that were the case, almost every man and woman on earth would be saved. No, my friends, we are to TEST ourselves to see if we are in the faith. And clearly, Paul says there is a chance you could fail the test.

Now John wrote a book called 1 John in which he outlines the tests which we are to take in order to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith - i.e. to see if we are saved. We will get to that later. For now, I want to focus on the steps to getting saved.

1. Decide to turn away from sin and to obey God.

There has to be a clear decision to believe and obey God. This is something to be sincere about. Not to be done half-heartedly. You must be sincere. God knows our hearts.

Most importantly, I must add that you must have faith in the redemption that Christ bought for us on the cross. Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is the way, the truth and the life, and NONE can come to the Father except through Him. Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation. It doesnt help believing there is a God but not believing in Jesus Christ and what He did for us.

2. Confess that you are a sinner

OK. Prayer time, time to talk to God one to one. I am not going to read off some prayer for you to recite. That means nothing. This is a personal conversation between you and the Almighty God; if you are sincere then speak from your heart. I cannot advise you on what to say. I can outline what confessions need to be made and what needs to be done, but this is YOUR salvation, your conversation with God. Instead of repeating after me, rather speak openly from your heart to your Creator, and He will hear your words.

Anyway, step 2. Prayer to God. Confess you are a sinner. Romans 3:10 says as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one;'. 1 John 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. We are all in need of salvation. You need to confess to God that you are a sinner and you need Him to save you.