Praying Outloud

Why pray? Simply put, for the purpose of godliness.  As 1 Timothy 4:7 states..."and receiving God’s grace."  Prayer is a spiritual discipline that promotes spiritual growth as we place ourselves before God for Him to work in us. To be like Jesus we must pray.
 
Today I want to encourage you to pray-to become like Jesus. A number of revivals in the church started with people praying.
 
A verse I have recently fell in love with is Romans 8:26-27, which states:
“In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
 
I think the reason I enjoy this verse so much is because it addresses a common human fear to pray out loud, myself included at times. A couple of reasons I believe this fear arises is first we are not sure what to pray for or we will forget someone’s prayer request. What Romans 8 states for us is the confidence of God covering up our weaknesses whether forgetfulness or uncertainty. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we cannot find the words to say.  
 
The second reason I believe we struggle to pray out loud is we are scared of what others will think of our prayer. My response to this is audience, who are you praying for? If you are praying to please people then you have missed the point of praying. Praying is to tug on the ear of the one who made us. God hears every prayer even when they are weaker than a snowflake. He delights in the fellowship and humbled hearts we have during prayer.
 
Prayer gets worked up into some high and mighty act, which it is vital and is mighty, but more importantly it is the submission of our will to God’s will. We begin to let go and let God work.
 
When I began to really enjoy praying was during my mission trip with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). From the very first week we broke into small groups and were told to pray out loud, whatever came to mind. We would then come back to the big group to share some of what we had prayed. During this sharing time we would begin to see similarities in our prayers, which lead to confirmations in our hearts. God was weaving our hearts together through the prayers. Throughout YWAM I loved seeing what God was speaking over us. Prayer became a passion for me to the point I would pray in my sleep. Here I learned the power of speaking the prayers in my heart and allowing others to hear God’s voice.
 
If we choose to not pray out loud, especially when and if your heart, like mine, starts beating fast, we are stealing from others the confirmations and the beauty of God showing Himself by weaving our hearts together into His vision. 

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