Where is it? I don’t see it. But I’m pretty sure Paul was a saved man, so it’s gotta be there. He was born again, and so he must have said it. Come on! It’s gotta be there!

What’s the it I’m looking for? Where am I looking for it? It is “the sinners prayer” and I’m looking for it in Acts 9. ‘Cause you gotta think that the guy who ended up writing the most on what it means to be saved must have said the prayer in order to be saved himself. That the one who writes so much about sin and confession and repentance must have prayed “the prayer” we so often think needs to be prayed in order to be saved by grace alone through faith alone. So, as I read Paul’s conversion experience this morning, I find myself asking, “Where’s the prayer of faith?”

Maybe it’s not there. But, really? Perhaps one of the most significant conversions in history, and no prayer of contrition and confession and consecration? Or maybe he prayed it after the encounter on the road when, as a blind man, he prayed at the house of Judas (ironic?) as he processed what had happened on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:11). Or maybe, just maybe, it was one of the first word’s out of his mouth. Maybe it was just one word. And maybe, as much as the one word, it was found in his humble posture.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

(Acts 9:1-5 ESV)

Lord. Is that the prayer I’m looking for? Falling to the ground. Is that the posture which I need to see? That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Not to use my experience as the arbiter of Holy Scripture, but I never prayed the prayer either. Though a friend had been sharing the gospel with me for a number of weeks, not sure how much I could have shared it back. But what I do know is that when I prayed that first feeble prayer, it began with “Lord.” I kind of knew that much. That if Jesus was anything or anybody, He was Lord.

And I’m wondering if that wasn’t Paul’s “moment of conversion” — the moment when Paul fell before Jesus, who in His sovereign purposes and grace determined to be revealed to Paul, and Paul addressed Him as “Lord.”

The original word can be used to address anyone who a person deems themselves to belong to, toward anyone who has the power of deciding and directing one’s life. The term a servant would use when speaking of, or to their master. The title one would adopt into their vocabulary when realizing that they were no longer their own.

Paul would have a lot to learn about the divine dynamics of how Jesus could be His Savior, but at that moment, when it pleased the Christ to open Paul’s eyes just before he shut them for three days, Paul knew that Jesus was Lord.

Falling to the ground. Facedown on the ground before the risen Messiah. Uttering with heartfelt sincerity (even when we don’t have mind-filled clarity), Lord. Doesn’t that sound like a pretty legit sinner’s prayer? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Not just the prayer to get saved, but the prayer for being saved. Not just a once-in-the-past confession which punches our ticket to heaven someday, but a day-by-day, moment-by-moment, heart attitude that allows us to live out the kingdom of heaven here and now.

Let’s not minimize the power to save of a one word prayer of faith — fitting to be spoken in almost any and every situation — which utters with sincerity and humility, “Lord.”

. . . because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

(Romans 10:9 ESV)

By His grace alone. For His glory alone.