One of things that I grew up learning as a Christians was “praying quietly”.
This is where you bow your head, close your eyes, and think your prayer to Jesus and expect him to read your mind. As a teenager, doing this was naturally pretty difficult. It was difficult because my mind is so filled with so many different things that I could never focus on just the prayer.
And so I was scared that the prayers going up to heaven were something like… “Jesus I thank you for this day HAMBURGER, because it’s nice out and the sun is I HAVE HOMEWORK TO DO shining.” Come to think of it, my mind still works like that.
Well thankfully, somewhere along the way, I stopped praying quietly. I remember some time in High School where the Holy Spirit just urged me to start using my mouth to pray. I started reading the scriptures out loud, I started praying out loud, I start singing out loud, I began doing all my communication to God out loud. In addition to the the volume around me soaring, this was also the time when my prayer life soared.
Looking back, now that I’m several years older, I can honestly say that one of the best recommendations I can give to Christians learning how to pray is…don’t do it quietly!
My theological reasoning? It’s rather simple. Look, God gave you your mind to think, and your mouth to speak. And if praying is that act by which we communicate to God, don’t use your mind to telepathically do it, use your mouth. We need to learn how to speak to our Maker with the mouth that He’s given us.
In fact, now that I’ve read through the Bible quite a bit, I am really stuck as to where we got “silent” prayer in the first place. I don’t see it anywhere! If you can find an example, please let me know.
Because all I see all over the scripture is that when God’s people pray, they are praying loudly, they are on their knees, they are banging their chests, they are standing up and shouting, they are crying out in the dark, yes it’s all very expressive, and much expressive than sitting down, folding your hands, and communicating with God “silently”.
And there are battle-field advantages as well. This is because Satan can’t read your mind! He responds the authority of the voice of God’s people. To say the least, “silent” prayer will not work in deliverance ministry.
So if you care to take a suggestion, start using your mouth to pray to Jesus. I guarantee it will vastly improve your prayer life!
