I had mentioned before that I was always afraid to pray out loud. I loved hearing my Aunts and Uncles pray at our family reunions. My Great Uncles Charlie or Ray were the ones normally to pray and give Grace before the meal. Now a lot of times it’s my second cousin who commences the prayer. Uncle Ray his father has passed away and Uncle Charlie is getting older.
I was at recent family functions and anytime Grace is brought up you’d think it was a relative no one wanted to discuss rather than a heart felt discussion with our Heavenly Father. I’m not bashing anyone, believe me. I used to be afraid too. But why? Why are we afraid? 1 John 5:14 tells us “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Also: Ephesians 3:12, NLT Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
I finally learned, personally that I needed to start small. Myself and one maybe two other people. I mean if you want to march into a stadium and offer pray out loud for the first time, like kids say now-you go on with your bad self! Lol. I could not have done that. I believe too that studying God’s word, listening to my Pastor pray, others pray helped me a lot. I also try to keep it straight and to the point. I’ve also not been afraid of telling God what I need, but I don’t always pray for myself.
I’ll be honest, I’ve already prayed while driving with my eyes open of course because we can talk to God anytime, anywhere. I can’t help but recall the movie with John Carey playing God and all these prayers come in all at once. He had to organize them lol… I believe God is a lot more organized.
I can only suggest doing Bible studies and getting to know God’s word. When people come to you and ask questions you’ll be ready. When this happened to me, I felt the tug in my heart to then pray with this person. It was then, I knew what I said felt right. It was from the heart and I honestly knew the other person needed my prayer.
Long story short is, you’ll know. It feels right. Once I started doing it then I felt much better about it. Do you have any tips on how you offer prayer? I’d love to hear from you.- Jodie
Photo credit goes to: http://newharvestcville.com/event-items/prayer-group-wednesdays
The Carpenter’s Daughter 