Do you pray out loud or in your head?

[Job24]

sometimes I will pray out loud and sometimes I will pray to myself... if I am at lunch with the guys at work then I will pray to myself and when I am at dinner with the family then I pray outloud... when I pray at night. I pray to myself and sometimes I just pray in the car or whatever and whenever I need God

(which is all the time)

 

[Quiet Storm]

I'm not a talker to begin with, so I only pray out loud at a convenient time such as if I'm asked to lead prayer or something like that. When I'm alone, I prefer silence. I've tried vocal prayer in my prayer closet many times, but it just feels to me as though I'm getting in the way too much. I have to think of what I want to say, then concentrate on processing it, hear what I have to say, think if it's the way I want to say it, while thinking ahead of what I want to say next, then concentrate on God all at the same time. If anything, praying out loud is more a chore than anything for me. It's not nearly as intimate to me as complete silence. That's when I can have long conversations with God and actually hear Him answer specific questions that I ask as though it were with anybody else. I've even had many an intimate encounter with His precense without saying a word. Believe it or not, I don't even pray vocally when I pray in the spirit. I usually just mouth the words, or at most use an inaudible whisper.

 

[water_ripple]

Not sure what that text in Sam has to do with silent prayer? No such thing taught in scripture. Mental assent or thought process is not prayer.

Word up!

According to KJV

Mathew 6:1-8

1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father whish is in heaven 2 Therfore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites so in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standinf in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Support for those who pray silently.

I think the message is saying pray to God with your heart. Don't say prayers aloud in public just to get noticed. However, I also think it is important to make a joyful noise unto the Lord but only if this is what one truly feels in their heart, and not for the manner of public recognition.

 

[Peter]

Not sure what that text in Sam has to do with silent prayer? No such thing taught in scripture. Mental assent or thought process is not prayer.

Word up!

Psalm 1 "Blessed is the man...But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he MEDITATES day and night."

Ephesians 5:19 "speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

 

[Peter]

Opps, brain burp!

Finishing...

Eph. 5:19 "making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Theres. Whew.

Peace.

Peter

 

[Quiet Storm]

I think we can safely conclude the following:

If done "In spirit and in truth", it really doesn't matter! I'll be quite honest. The only reasy why I used to try praying out loud was because I was self concious and didn't want to seem different from certain people who prayed out loud. I wanted to be part of "the 'in' group" so to speak. It had nothing to do with conviction, desiring to be more intimate with God or anything. I was perfectly happy with the deep intimacy I had with Him with the way I'd been doing things. During this whoe time (trying to make myself pray out loud so I could be like other people), I fell further from God than I ever had in a long time. Not saying that vocal prayer is bad at all. But if you do it and your heart's not in it, then it's pretty much useless, wouldn't you say?

 

[water_ripple]

Opps, brain burp!

Finishing...

Eph. 5:19 "making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Theres. Whew.

Peace.

Peter

It really is nice to be able to laugh wholeheartedly in the face of dark times. Thanx!

 

[Peter]

And I even made two other errors correcting the original error!

Aaahhhh!

Peace.

Peter

 

[Quiet Storm]

What I find funny (in the figurative sense) is that believers are condemning each other over something as holy as prayer. Believe it or not, I was questioning my salvation for a long time because certain people were saying "you should pray out loud" and I just didn't like doing it like that. Like I said, I fell off from God for a long time because I tried to make myself pray out loud and it wasn't intimate at all. I'm pretty sure that if God didn't like the way I was praying, He'd have told me by now.

 

[Galadriel]

What I find funny (in the figurative sense) is that believers are condemning each other over something as holy as prayer. Believe it or not, I was questioning my salvation for a long time because certain people were saying "you should pray out loud" and I just didn't like doing it like that. Like I said, I fell off from God for a long time because I tried to make myself pray out loud and it wasn't intimate at all. I'm pretty sure that if God didn't like the way I was praying, He'd have told me by now.

I feel very much the same way, I get SO uncomfortable praying out loud that I can hardly think on what I am saying, and actually I find it more of a hindrance than a help. Its like I have to force the words out or something.

Lol Peter, having technical difficulities??

 

[Brooke]

Sometimes talking out loud spoils the moment for me. I'd rather talk silently, with not very many words. Then again, the reason it's not very many words is that I barely have anything to talk about in the first place.

 

[katylees]

i pray in my head like you do, i haven't got much self confidence so i feel that i can't pray aloud but i think they do the same job whatever way you pray !? - luv katy

 

[Super Gnat]

Most of the time I start off praying in my head but end up whispering or subvocalizing. I think God wants us to pray in a way that brings us closer to Him.

 

[Cragg]

I Pray in my head nearly all of the time. I would just love to be able to have the confidence to pray out loud, but I just dont. I keep reminding myself of my favourite scripture, Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" but it doesnt help at all.

 

[Galadriel]

I Pray in my head nearly all of the time. I would just love to be able to have the confidence to pray out loud, but I just dont. I keep reminding myself of my favourite scripture, Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" but it doesnt help at all.

Aww, I hear you!! I know what you mean, I too wish I had the confidence to as well.

 

[admtaylor]

When alone, I pray out loud. It helps me to slow my thoughts enough to discipline them into meaningful prayer. Otherwise, my thoughts are all over the place, and I end up sending all sorts of "stream of consciousness" gobbledygook God's way.

He'll figure it out. I was just talking about this with a friend of mine. Do you ever have those times when you need to slow down in life and realize the Lords presence? Or a time when you've made a froward sin recently and the Holy Spirit is just pounding on your heart to the point that you can barely function. You can almost feel yourself being pushed to your knees? This happens to me at work a lot. I work overnight and have a fair amount of computer and paperwork to do. I'm all alone in the building I work in. I think that's why it happens. The Lord is just saying "This is the perfect opportunity for you to recognize my presence." or "Remember that thing you did yesterday that you've been trying to ignore? Time to repent." I know it's up to us to repent, but I really feel that the Holy Spirit can be VERY persuasive sometimes.

Anyone understand what I'm saying here?

I got off on a tangent. Anyway during these times I'm just silent and I open my heart and mind up to the Lord. Sometimes many random thoughts just fly off my mind. But, afterwards I feel so at peace and unburdened.

 

[Snowy]

I pray in my head....because my prayers are only for God

 

[Pseud]

The last three nights I've been praying out loud.. well, out quiet. I just whispered, hehe.. Anyway, it's definitely different, and I think I preferred it aside from the fact of not wanting family to overhear me (they tend to invade on every personal aspect of my life as it is). Anyway, I felt it opened me up a little more to God.

 

[TransformedByGrace]

I have been praying outloud lately because it builds up boldness and confidence in God. When you pray without caring whos staring at you, you are unashamed. We should all be unashamed of Christ. So get bold and pray with worrying, pray in times when you are in church, and at the mall. Just Pray

 

[Soulwings]

I pray quietly because I like feeling that I'm having a private conversation with God. I don't know if that's just me. But then again I pray a lot during the day that if I did it outloud every time, I would sound insane and probably end up irritating a lot of people.