learning to love to pray out loud

I’ve always hated public speaking. I’ve never enjoyed the idea of getting up in front of a group of people and talking about something. Being the “center of attention” terrifies me, and it’s not something that I would immediately volunteer to do. I’m like Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries! Okay, I’ve never gotten so nervous that I run out and throw up, but I have gotten nervous where I feel sick and I get all shaky!

The feeling that I have about public speaking is the same feeling that I get when I know I have to pray out loud. Praying out loud is so difficult for me, as it is for many other people as well. I have such a hard time with praying out loud; I don’t even enjoy praying out loud in front of my husband! Praying should be something that comes natural for all believers, right? Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for many believers.

So Why is Praying Hard to do in Front of Others?

There are so many reasons people are nervous about praying in front of others. I know for me; I get nervous because my prayers don’t sound elegant enough, and I’m not using the words that I think I should be. Another reason I get nervous is because I’m so afraid that I’m going to mess up a word, phrase, name, or anything, and sound ridiculous! I don’t want to say anything that may come out wrong, and then people laugh or snicker. These are only a few examples. I have more and I’m sure many others have examples of their own!

When I think about these reasons, I can’t help but wonder, do we really need to worry about what others think of our prayers? Does the Lord care how our prayers sound, or how many times we mess up?

Pleasing the Lord with Our Prayers

I know for a fact that the Lord doesn’t care how many times we mess up, or sound ridiculous, when we pray to Him! He isn’t sitting up in heaven with a clipboard, taking notes, and tallying how many times we say “um” and “okay”, and He definitely isn’t sitting in the back with a timer making sure we don’t go over the time we’re given, and raising His hands if we are going over. (If you have gone through a public speaking classes, then you know what I’m talking about!) In fact, the Lord is sitting there, listening so intently to us that He doesn’t care about the number of times we mess up, or the number of times we say “um”! In fact, He already knows how many times we’ll mess up, how long we’ll end up taking, or how many times we say “um” and “okay”.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
    and His ears are attentive to their prayer

1 Peter 3:12 NIV

The Lord listens to our prayers, no matter how silly we think we sound! He doesn’t care how many times we mess up, because He is our Father, and He loves when we talk to Him!

A way that I view this is when I’m talking to my kids. Especially my 5-year-old. She repeats everything more than once, loses her train of thought, says “um” enough times to fail a public speaking class, and sometimes she ends on a different subject than what she started on! I practice a lot of patience when I listen to her tell me a story. However, the Lord isn’t like that. He doesn’t get annoyed at how many times we mess up or lose our train of thought. He loves the idea that we are going to Him and talking to Him, just like I love when my 5-year-old comes home and tells me stories from her day!

Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24 NIV

The Lord hears us before we go to Him in prayer! He knows what we are going to say, and He knows how He will answer us. What assurance we have, to know that we aren’t forgotten, to know that we cannot annoy the Lord!

Continue to pray!

My friends, I want to encourage you to continue to go to the Lord in prayer! Whether or not it’s in front of others. But I want to encourage you to not care so much about what others think of how you pray, because the Lord is the only one that matters! Do I think you should be able to go to your church’s prayer meeting and instantly feel comfortable to pray in front of everyone? Not at all. This is something that I know will take time. I’m still learning! But we need to remember that the Lord doesn’t care how we are praying. He cares that we are praying to Him, and Him alone! He wants us to turn to Him with our praises, needs, and requests!

I’m choosing to work on my fear of praying out loud. Will you?

Until next time, friends!