Salvation is totally a work of God; ultimately, only leaving you with the decision to surrender to Him as Lord and Savior, submitting your life to His authority, turning from your sins to Him and the finished work of the cross.

Scripture is clear on this matter.  John 6:44 says, "No one can come to Me (Jesus) unless the Father (God) who sent Me draws him; ..."  and in Matthew 11:27 Jesus says, "All things have been handed over to Me (Jesus) by My Father (God); and no one knows the Son (Jesus) except the Father (God); nor does anyone know the Father (God) except the Son (Jesus) and anyone to whom the Son (Jesus) wills to reveal Him (God).

You can't come to Jesus unless the God the Father draws you, and you can't know God the Father unless Jesus reveals Him to you.

This leaves man with a big problem in trying to achieve salvation through his own actions.

Still we find that the typical testimony of the false convert is all about what they have done and what they have accomplished.  It usually begins with what "I did", what "I believe", and always includes "I know what I meant".

It usually goes something like this:
"I remember how hard it was for me to take that first step, but I did it."
"I stepped out and walked down the aisle and I took the preacher by his hand and I repeated a prayer, and shortly after that I was baptized."

A lot of I's , but not a word about Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Yet again, it seems that the false convert's testimony is boasting in what they have done. ("I,I,I")  Many unawaringly have put their faith in a past act - a dead act (walking the aisle, repeating a prayer, baptism, etc.) and a past period of time (when I was 9 years old, etc.) instead of putting their faith in the living Christ.  The problem is many have walked an aisle with a wish list instead of a broken heart over their sin, or a desperate desire to repent of their sin, let alone any evidence or an eagerness to surrender and submit their lives to the authority of Lord Jesus. They were motivated primarily out of a love of self, rather than a love of the Father. There was little or no appreciation for the great price that was paid to make a way of salvation: the shed blood of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.