Praying Aloud - Is This a Problem Today?

Did you ever wonder why you find it difficult to pray out loud?  Ever wonder why you cannot pray aloud while others can with ease?  Do you think you’re not a Christian because you cannot pray aloud?

Some Christians think like this, and you could argue that this does point to a spiritual problem.  There are Christians who have never once prayed aloud, either in a prayer meeting or even at home. 

But here’s what we have found: there’s nothing like deep, real, pressing, life-threatening trouble to get you a-praying.  Margaret never prayed aloud in any prayer meeting, and only once at home when she was faced by a particularly trying situation.  But that was it. 

Now, what was it that got her a-praying?  Cancer.  Can you understand why she thanks God for her cancer?  It got her meeting with the Lord in a way that neither of us knew before. 

You see, God has His own way of getting us to take our Christian lives and profession seriously.  When He really touches us, we’ll pray.  Remember when Saul was converted on the road to Damascus?  How did the disciples know he really was a Christian?  They said, “Look! He’s praying” (Ac.9:11).  Prayer is the cry of the living child of God.   Prayer is how the child of God communicates with his/her heavenly Father.  It is how we enjoy communion with our Lord. 

But look.  Be very careful when you say you can’t pray aloud.  God has His own effective ways of getting us a-praying.  We can take either the easier way, or be faced with a much more difficult way.  But either way, the sheer blessedness of communion with our Saviour is worth it all.  To be in His presence, and know it, is a rare blessing.  To know that you and the Lord are actually speaking to each other – He through his Word to us, and we in our prayers to Him, is a blessing not to be missed.  To sit silently in His holy presence is both an uncomfortable thing and an encouraging thing.  To know “the love of Christ being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us” – well, the only thing better than that is heaven itself (Rom.5:5).  To be filled “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet.1:8), well, that’s amazing.  You just cannot describe what it’s like.  Words fail you.  It is so magnificent and awe-inspiring that language proves useless to tell what it’s like.

And when God visits you in some such way, then you’ll know spiritual delights that you never thought it was possible for you to know and experience.