Many Christians have found praying the sinner's prayer helpful. Many have even found that in praying this prayer, for the very first time they were confident either of really wanting to be a Christian, or of being one.
It goes something like this:
Lord, I confess that I have turned away from you, and that as a result my life is not what it should be.
I accept your offer to place my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow him. I believe and accept your promise that those who do this will be forgiven, and will receive salvation and eternal life.
Prayers of this form were made very popular by Billy Graham, but the idea is only about 500 years old, so it's not necessary to say this to be a Christian (see who is a Christian). Nor is there any correct or official wording. This one is a little unusual in that it doesn't actually use the word sin. It does use a couple of other words that you might not be familiar with, salvation and eternal life. If you're not sure what the last phrase means yet, just stop at the last comma for now. You might like to add something that you do understand in the place of the last phrase, or it's quite all right to leave it out.
Nor is there any guarantee that merely saying these words will make you a Christian. They are not magic.
But, to say these words sincerely is good enough for many, perhaps most, Christians, to be assured of salvation and eternal life. There's a lot in them, in a few words, and what they say is very precious to God.
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