I have been doing a series of articles on prayer:
Struggling To Pray
Learning to Pray,
and Now, Help Me to Pray--Aloud.
So many Christians find "serving God" easier to do than praying. Matter of fact, "doing" comes easier than praying. We do every day - all day long - whether it is for God or not, BUT don't we also talk? Why do we struggle so much to pray?
We certainly don't struggle in talking. We are very relational. We text, twitter, Facebook, chat, IM and even occasionally phone one another. We are very familiar now with the technology of "talking" to someone who is not physically with us, therefore, if we apply our current abilities of modern communication to "talking" with God in prayer we should be pros!
In this post I am going to cover praying aloud!
I am not necessarily talking about group prayer, but verbal prayer. Our thoughts can run around flitting about as ideas pop into our conscious mind, but when we speak aloud our thoughts generally focus on what is being said. We can funnel this ability into our prayer life.
God hears our thoughts, he also hears our heart before thoughts are even formed in our linguistic part of our mind. He is Spirit and Truth! We are spiritual also.
We have a physical body; is an outward form and a highly proficient vessel created by God that allows us to live life on earth. But our soul is not of flesh and blood - Our soul includes our mental processing (our mind), our will and our emotions. Apart from our soul, we have a spirit.
Our spirit is the highest level of our being. When we are born again as Jesus taught Nicodemus we don't not re-enter our mother to be reborn physically - we are reborn spiritually. Sin caused us to be spiritually dead--to be disconnected from God. Jesus dying on the cross bore our sins--he died for them, took the penalty for them, BUT he rose from the dead. Because of this - and this alone- we are able to be alive in our spirit - alive to God - fully abiding in Him - fully connected to Him.
Therefore, we are able to communicate to God in Spirit and Truth. We - our soul-self- communicates to God through our reborn spiritual self, but we can use our physical body - our voice - to pray. Of course, prayer can be silent and only internal - our thoughts communicating to God by our spirit, but to discipline ourself, we can speak aloud when we pray.
Try it! Simply talk to God as you would a friend. Also pause, and listen.
Allow yourself to use a variety of means to stay connected to God. There is not one "spiritually right" way to pray. Give yourself freedom to pray in a variety of ways - it will grow your prayer life and your relationship with God.
So go ahead, talk aloud to God! Pray!
I am ending this post with a video I recorded, a very short sample of praying to God aloud.
Struggling To Pray
Learning to Pray,
and Now, Help Me to Pray--Aloud.
So many Christians find "serving God" easier to do than praying. Matter of fact, "doing" comes easier than praying. We do every day - all day long - whether it is for God or not, BUT don't we also talk? Why do we struggle so much to pray?
We certainly don't struggle in talking. We are very relational. We text, twitter, Facebook, chat, IM and even occasionally phone one another. We are very familiar now with the technology of "talking" to someone who is not physically with us, therefore, if we apply our current abilities of modern communication to "talking" with God in prayer we should be pros!
In this post I am going to cover praying aloud!
I am not necessarily talking about group prayer, but verbal prayer. Our thoughts can run around flitting about as ideas pop into our conscious mind, but when we speak aloud our thoughts generally focus on what is being said. We can funnel this ability into our prayer life.
God hears our thoughts, he also hears our heart before thoughts are even formed in our linguistic part of our mind. He is Spirit and Truth! We are spiritual also.
We have a physical body; is an outward form and a highly proficient vessel created by God that allows us to live life on earth. But our soul is not of flesh and blood - Our soul includes our mental processing (our mind), our will and our emotions. Apart from our soul, we have a spirit.
Our spirit is the highest level of our being. When we are born again as Jesus taught Nicodemus we don't not re-enter our mother to be reborn physically - we are reborn spiritually. Sin caused us to be spiritually dead--to be disconnected from God. Jesus dying on the cross bore our sins--he died for them, took the penalty for them, BUT he rose from the dead. Because of this - and this alone- we are able to be alive in our spirit - alive to God - fully abiding in Him - fully connected to Him.
Therefore, we are able to communicate to God in Spirit and Truth. We - our soul-self- communicates to God through our reborn spiritual self, but we can use our physical body - our voice - to pray. Of course, prayer can be silent and only internal - our thoughts communicating to God by our spirit, but to discipline ourself, we can speak aloud when we pray.
Try it! Simply talk to God as you would a friend. Also pause, and listen.
Allow yourself to use a variety of means to stay connected to God. There is not one "spiritually right" way to pray. Give yourself freedom to pray in a variety of ways - it will grow your prayer life and your relationship with God.
So go ahead, talk aloud to God! Pray!
I am ending this post with a video I recorded, a very short sample of praying to God aloud.
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