does saying a prayer really save anyone?

John 7:10-13 (NLT) 10 But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. 11 The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him. 12 There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.” 13 But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders. The thing that struck me in this scripture was that no one wanted to say anything that the leaders might find offensive. I was not raised Baptist but joined a Baptist church when I was in my early 30’s. I was told that to receive salvation I had to say a prayer, in the prayer I had to admit I was a sinner (no problem there!) and ask Jesus into my heart. If I would just say the prayer I would have eternal life and no one could ever take it away from me. Now to question this would have greatly upset the church leaders. Does just saying the prayer give me eternal life? Does believing that Jesus died for my sins so that I can now spend eternity in heaven get me there? Let me give you this illustration to help you see what I am saying. For those of you that do not know me I am about 5 ft 2 inchs tall and I weigh 230 lbs as of today. Now I gotta tell you that I believe with all my heart that if I ate less, if I ate healthy food, if I exercised more I would lose weight. So does believing all those things make me any thinner? No! So, where does that leave us? Well, first I do have to understand I have a problem or that I am a sinner. I need to see my need of a Savior. I need to understand that the Creator of everything (including me) wants a relationship with me, that is why He took the time and effort to create me. I can know that He exists, that does not give me a personal relationship with Him. Relationships take time and effort. If I want a good relationship with Him I need to know what He wants from that relationship not just what I want from it. He wants me to get to know Him, to spend time finding out what He wants. That means taking the time to read the book He provided. But just reading the book will not change our relationship, even the devil has read the book! Just like if I want to lose weight I have to start doing the things necessary to make a difference, then if I want a real relationship with Him, a wonderful relationship I have to start doing the things in the book. I need to allow Him to change me into the person He wants me to be. I don’t need to become who I think will please Him, I just have to give Him permission to remold me into who He wants me to be. Bottom line, yes, say the prayer but MEAN what you are saying!