How to pray out loud without fear is a habit we ought to nurture as believers. We are supposed to know how to get comfortable praying out loud, despite the fact that prayer is a personal thing, a time to commune between a believer and God.
It is normal if we don’t really know how to pray out loud without fear because we feel shy or because we care so much about what people around us will think of it and what people around us will say.
And this becomes a backdrop for us to pray quietly (which is equally not bad), but we end up not knowing how to pray in public.
I used to belong to the school of thought like many other believers who strongly believe that one must pray in silence because it is to God we are praying and not to the people around us. But I later discovered that there is nowhere in the scriptures were praying out loud is negated.
But rather, there are several scriptural examples to follow and emulate, where we see someone or a group of people that prayed out loud without fear, crying out to God, making their request and petition known to God, and for God’s glory to be made manifest.
Prayer is one of the fundamental subjects in all of the Christian life, so the believer must know how to get comfortable praying out loud in public without fear, not for the intention of attracting attention, but for the sake of being bold to express and practice one of the fundamental subjects of the Christian faith, and to also be at liberty to commune with God anywhere and anytime.
We should normalize being at liberty to pray in public without fear, to pour out our hearts to God as many Biblical characters did.
Lie Christ did in Matthew 27: 46 (NIV) “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani… and even the book of Hebrews 5: 7 (NIV) recorded that “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears.”
And the congregation also did the same in Acts 4: 24 (NIV) “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” These few verses are a few scriptural examples where people prayed out loud.
But before we take it further, let’s look at what prayer is and the purpose of prayer because understanding what prayer is and its purpose will cause you to know how to pray out loud without fear.
What Is Prayer?
Prayer is a dialogue between God and man. It is to engage in discussion with God. It is the place of communing and summiting to the sovereign will of God.
To take it a step further or deeper, the Hebrew word ‘tefillah’ translated as prayer means to speak to someone in authority, interceding on your own behalf or on behalf of others.
When one seeks the attention of one in authority for intercession, it is the one in authority that has the final say because if what you seek after does not align with his interest, it won’t be granted.
Hence we seek his will. When we seek God, interceding on our behalf or on behalf of others, it is God’s will we seek after and not our own will, and when God’s will manifests, God’s glory also manifests.
Hence in prayer, we seek an opportunity for God to manifest His glory. So we can say a prayer is an act that we engage in to call on God to manifest His glory in our lives. With this in mind, let’s briefly see the purpose of prayer.
The Purpose Of Prayer
Looking at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6: 9 – 13 and Luke 11: 2 – 4, which is the true standard of prayer pattern to follow.
We’ll see that it clearly explains the purpose of prayer, and the focal point of prayer is on God, and His will coming to manifestation, and God’s will is accompanied by His glory.
Hence the purpose of prayer is for God to manifest His glory in our lives. Matt 6:9-13 (NIV) “This, then, is how you should pray:
- God’s Fatherhood “Our Father in heaven.”
- God’s sacred holiness “hallowed be your name.”
- God’s Supreme Sovereignty “your kingdom come.”
- God’s purpose is “you will be done.”
- God’s provision is “Give us today our daily bread.”
- God’s pardon “Forgive us our debts.”
- God’s guidance and protection “And lead us not into temptation.”
Haven has seen that the purpose of prayer is to submit to God’s will, for God to manifest His glory in our lives, let us use it as a base to explain why we ought to pray out Loud.
Why We Ought To Pray Out Loud
If you sometimes think about how to pray out loud without fear, and you ask yourself why you even ought to pray out loud?
The reason why we ought to pray out loud without fear is that the purpose of prayer is to submit to God’s will, with the emphasis for God to manifest His glory.
This should light in us the appetite and boldness to learn how to pray out loud without fear, knowing that we are the privileged ones at that moment approaching the throne of the creator, who is the Sovereign Lord of all, seeking for His glory to be made known and seen by men.
We should always have the meaning and purpose of prayer at the back of our minds anytime we are privileged to pray and use it as a backdrop to energize our boldness to pray out loud.
We should know we are not drawing attention to ourselves, but we are drawing attention to God’s glory. This is why we ought to pray out loud without fear.
Is praying Out Loud Wrong?
Is praying out loud wrong? This is a question young believers in Christ often asked me, and I always give them the same response, there is nothing wrong with praying out loud, as long as it is not done with the intention of attracting personal attention to yourself, but it is done with the right intention of prayer in mind.
If we carefully look at Christ’s statement about hypocritical prayer in scriptures, Christ was not against the volume of their voice, but rather it was about the intent of their hearts. Matthew 6: 5 (NIV) “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” He said they do it with the intention of drawing attention to themselves, “to be seen by men.” See what Luke 11: 1 (NIV) says “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.
When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” With a close look at this, one can say Christ was not praying silently.
He was vocal, probably even loud. Else His disciples will not hear Him pray and wish to learn how to pray like Him. So there is nothing wrong with praying out loud as long as the intention is not selfish, but it is rather an appeal, seeking God that His glory is made known to all men.
How To Pray Out Loud Without Fear- 9 Steps
1. Acknowledge That Prayer Is A Personal Thing
Praying to God is a personal thing. By this, it means when you are praying, have it at the back of your mind that it is God you are discussing or communing with.
It is God you are appealing to and not humans or the people around you. You also have to acknowledge the paternity of God in your life. The phrase “our Father” is so great a personal phrase.
To see God as Our Father, how do you communicate to your Father when in need of something? So you should feel free to pray out loud without fear and express your deepest thoughts and emotions to God, knowing that you want to submit to His will and for His glory to be made known, this is how to pray out loud without fear.
2. Don’t Try To Impress Anybody (Including Yourself)
Learning how to pray out loud in public gatherings can be some sort of a difficult thing for some of us.
But it can be really simple when we don’t try to impress anybody and we just focus all our attention on God. In fact, focusing all our attention on God even helps us how to pray out loud better.
When we put our whole focus and attention on God, without being shy or having a fear of what the people around us will think of how our prayer sounds likes, the kind of words we use, and the flow of thought in our prayers, we just express our deepest thoughts and make our petition known unto God.
Since we are not praying to anyone but to God, it will also be of good to us if we sound just simple and don’t try to impress anyone, avoid trying to sound too super-spiritual or to sound too deep, with the kind of words and phrases we use.
We should have it at the back of our mind that God already knows every single detail of what we want to pray about, so we should focus on communing with God as one friend to another friend.
Don’t try to impress anyone with your prayers when praying out loud, and it will help you to pray out loud without fear.
3. When You Pray Out Loud, Let It Glorify God
The reason why Christ attacked the praying patterns of the Pharisees and Sadducees is that they prayed with the intention to draw attention and put the focus on them, whereas the main focus of prayer is God.
Matthew 6: 5 (NIV) “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” Christ warned here that when you put yourself in the center of prayer, you will receive your reward in full, and God’s glory won’t be made known to people. The main purpose and aim of any prayer are to glorify God.
It is to keep any form of self aside and carry the entire gathering or members of the congregation alongside to put all attention and focus on God.
It is about acknowledging the person of God, acknowledging His supremacy, and using that few little minutes you have to glorify God.
4. Let The Holy Spirit Lead You
To follow the leading of the Holy Spirit when praying out loud means to pray about those things that pertain to the Kingdom of God. These things are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14: 10).
Romans 8:26 (NIV) “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” Without relying on the help of the Holy Spirit, we cannot make any meaningful prayer.
To give further explanation, without the help of the Holy Spirit, we will be so focused on ourselves to draw attention to ourselves and forget the main purpose of prayer.
This is because our naturally depraved mind has made us be so selfish, we are narcissistic by nature, and we always want to draw attention to ourselves.
So when we are opportune to, we don’t know how to pray out loud without fear because we tend to want to make a show of it, to draw admiration from the people around, and we let go of the leading of the Holy Spirit and want to depend on our abilities.
We should always depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit and prayer for what patterns to kingdom matter. When we are focused on matters of the Kingdom, we will pray out loud without fear.
5. Pray With Sincerity In Your Heart
One of the popular teachings today is that we should think positive, say positive things, and envision positive things.
I’ve even heard someone say when praying, don’t say negative. Instead, just thank God and confess the positive things you want to see in your life.
Now I’m not against thinking positive and confessing positive things, but we should understand that sometimes life puts us in terrible situations, so we must be willing to sometimes feel unhappy and sad because it is one of the packages life brings.
We must not always be uptight and upbeat, and to make it worse, to bring it up when we pray.
When we approach God, we have the right to be free to cry out and pray out loud with sincerity in our hearts, expressing our deepest thoughts and feelings.
We should not pretend and try to sugar-coat our words because of the mindset of positive confession; this will only cause us to feel less bold.
But we should approach God with all sincerity in our hearts and pray out loud without fear of what people think or say. We can see some examples from the Biblical figures how they approached God with sincerity in their hearts.
Look at Christ’s example in Matthew 27: 46 (NIV) “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani… He cried out loud to God insincerity of the heart. Praying with sincerity in our hearts helps us to cry out loud, pour our hearts to God and pray out loud without fear.
6. Try To Keep It Short And Simple
It is not the complexity of the prayer, nor is lengthy or short prayers, either of the two stated cannot make prayer to be more powerful or less powerful. It is not time.
It is not wrong to pray a lengthy prayer that is made up of deep theological thoughts and provoking phrases, as long as you are doing it out of a heartfelt burden or out of being led by the Holy Spirit.
But to know how to pray out loud without fear as someone who is a beginner at it or as a young believer who just got born again, there is nothing wrong with short and simple prayers.
More so, as a beginner who is either a new believer in Christ or who is learning how and wants to know how to pray out loud without fear and how to pray in a group, the tendency of you fidgeting as a first-timer or a beginner is high.
So keeping it short and simple will help you to be quick with it. The most important thing is to focus on the main purpose of prayer, which is for God’s will to manifest.
7. Have A Prayer Point And Focus On It
This can be done in two ways. The first one is that when given a prayer point, we should just focus on that prayer point when praying out loud. Don’t try to go beyond. Stay on that point and focus on it.
To take it a step further or deeper on this second perspective.
As we have seen that the main purpose and focus of prayer is for God’s glory to manifest, our prayer point should be focused and built within this boundary. Take, for instance, what we want to pray about is to ask God for guidance, protection, and provision.
We should approach it with the mindset that God will manifest His glory by protecting and providing for us.
This will light up some sort of boldness in us, that we have a heavenly Father that can be protected and provide for us.
We will boldly pray out loud without fear. When this is done, and we then stand on it to pray, we will without fear pray out loud.
8. Pray Out Loud In Thanksgiving And Declare The Wonderful Works Of God
Praying out loud in thanksgiving, and declaring the wondrous works of the Lord gives us the boldness to pray out loud in public without fear.
We can never run out of words, and we can never feel shy or afraid when declaring the wonders of God.
No words in all of the human languages can actually express in full abundance the wonderful works of God.
So if we keep declaring the wonderful work of God, declaring God’s greatness in our prayers, we won’t be shy to pray out loud in public.
9. Make It A Constant Practice
Practice, they say, makes perfect. We get better at what we always engage in. It has become a norm and a lifestyle.
If we want to normalize and make praying out loud a constant practice, then we must start by knowing how to practice praying out loud.
You can start learning how to pray out loud with your spouse before you take it further on how to pray in public.
You and your spouse can start at home, and if you are not married, you can as well start practicing praying out loud on your own. It is when you make it a constant practice you can get better at it before you know how to pray in public.
Conclusion
The truth that comes out of our mouths when we know how to pray out loud without fear can only be infused by God.
So we should learn how to practice praying out loud and make it a part of our prayer life because by praying out loud, we are announcing to the people in our environment that we submit to the Supreme sovereign will of God for Him to manifest His glory in our lives, and we’ll experience the power of praying out loud in our lives.
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