I came to know the Lord as an adult, and I happened to attend a church where praying out loud by individuals was part of every Sunday morning worship. To begin with I thought Christians had another language I was not aware of. I would listen as the people in this congregation would lift up beautiful prayers. I was mesmerized as the sweetest words would be spoken. I did not grow up in church or really ever hear much of any type of prayer being lifted. After hearing them I really felt like I could never utter any words out loud for others to hear. I felt my words would never be worthy in comparison.
After our first year at this church and our first year living for the Lord, a little boy in the church – maybe 6 years old was diagnosed with cancer. This was a smaller church maybe 250 people. One Sunday morning they brought this little boy up front to pray over him, many people got up to surround him physically and I felt the power of that prayer like nothing I had experienced before. The next visit to the doctors, the report was that he did not have one bit of cancer in his little body. My heart just beat for prayer from that moment on. It still took me a while longer to be able to utter prayer out loud. I began small, just a sentence, and that was for some reason excruciating. But I continued to be faithful and talk to God out loud among others. That is really all prayer is, talking to God and listening for His voice. As we obey God and open our hearts to Him, He will do in us what we cannot do – change our hearts.
We don’t need to have any “right, correct” words, we just need to have a heart to communicate with and hear from Him. He does not analyze our words or the way we say them, He only wants our hearts.
Have you ever thought about the idea that when you pray aloud, you also allow others to have a connection with God in a way they perhaps would not have known? That perhaps you would be giving others confidence and examples to draw from? When we are with others who are praying, we are standing in agreement with them as they speak to the Lord. We are opening our hearts and asking our Lord to come in and abide in us.
When the Bible says “pray without ceasing” – the concept is not that we need to be praying words aloud all day, but that we say in a mindset of prayer. The more we practice this the more it becomes our heartbeat.
The Lord is wanting to hear from us. What is your next step? Do you have a prayer time to be alone with God? Maybe your next step is to say a sentence prayer out loud at group or a gathering? Maybe it is time to join our prayer team. Wherever God nudges you, He desires for us to be in fellowship with Him and for us to live in freedom and abundance.
Father, thank you for loving us so much that our fellowship with you is what you desire most. Give us opportunity to give you our heart and sit at your feet. We love you and praise you! Amen