Praying out Loud
A relationship technique.
When is the last time you thought out loud?
We have conversations with ourselves all day long.
But how often do we take those same thoughts and bring them directly to God?
If praying is apart of your daily practice, when is the last time you prayed out loud?
I’m not talking about grace or family worship.
I’m talking about one on one out loud prayer and conversation with God.
I had to ask myself these same questions when thinking about my own prayer life.
For me, I pray silently because it feels easy and quick.
But praying out loud forces me to slow down and actually have a conversation.
When I think about audible prayer, I think of Moses as, in my opinion, a top five person of the Bible.
He not only thought out loud but he spoke and prayed to God audibly and God spoke back.
One of my favorite stories is when God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush.
Yes, the bush is on fire but also Moses is sitting here reasoning with God through a bush.
Moses is thinking and speaking out loud to God trying to wriggle his way out of this grand lifelong journey that God chose him for.
Moses was frustrated but he didn’t hide his hesitation.
Moses brought his fears and even excuses directly into the conversation.
He’s reasoning and praying out loud asking God to please pick someone else.
And God has a rebuttal for all of Moses’ excuses.
That’s the first time but certainly not the last time that Moses speaks and reasons out loud with God.
Moses learned that prayer wasn’t just presenting requests.
His prayer life was a relationship.
A relationship he used to get his thoughts out of his head and make them audibly known to God.
What a great example from Moses on building up a relationship with God by speaking and praying out loud.
And that’s the key.
Prayer is a relationship.
And relationships grow by time spent together.
What can we do in our day to day lives to not only get our thoughts out of our head but also our prayers?
Maybe it’s hard to hear God’s voice because we don’t talk to Him and expect him to talk back.
Is there something we are holding in our hearts that is causing much stress but can be handled by God if we just simply pray about it out loud?
This doesn’t mean that praying silently isn’t meaningful.
God hears our prayers whether spoken and unspoken.
But there is something powerful about giving our thoughts a voice and having conversation with God.
This week try praying out loud.
Don’t worry about perfect words.
A relationship grows through conversation and prayer is our conversation with God.
- G. Banks