TALKING OUT LOUD TO GOD

"I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah" (Ps. 3:4).

For most of my life, I've prayed silently in my mind. And if you want to "pray without ceasing" you will definitely need to be able to commune with God in your mind if you don't want to rudely interrupt a lot of things. But I have found out that when I am alone, I need to talk out loud.

When I pray silently, my thoughts tend to drift. They seem to become incomplete sentences. Most of the time when I lie in bed I tell myself that I am praying, but in reality, I'm only pushing the spiritual snooze alarm so that I don't have to get up for another ten minutes. Most of what I pray that way doesn't even make sense.

Recently I completed a book called "Two Chairs" by Bob Beaudine. He recommends setting an appointment each day with Jesus. You sit in one chair across from another literal, but empty chair. Then you have an out-loud conversation with Him.

When I do this it is a time of me asking Jesus questions and then listening for His answers. What He has to say during this conversation is what is important. This is different from previous praying where have tended to ask God to bless what I was doing without even bothering to ask Him what He wanted me to be doing in the first place. Mark Batterson calls that asking God to follow me rather than me following Him.

When I actually ask Him things, rather than tell Him things, He speaks to my spirit. He also speaks through my husband, He speaks through wise counsel from close friends, He speaks through circumstances that take place as I go about my day, He speaks in books and videos that I read and listen to, and He speaks through His Word. He speaks all the time when I am tuned in. If I listen, I have no problem hearing Him. When I cry out to Him, I know He hears me and I know He will answer. I stay tuned in throughout the day so that I don't miss those answers.

If you are expecting an important call from someone you keep your phone on and the volume turned up, don't you?

So cry out to Him and listen to what He has to say. Cry out loud with your voice, not just your thoughts. Have an actual conversation with Almighty God. I'm home alone all day by myself, but I'm not lonely.

When I speak it out loud two things happen. One is that I can hear it myself. Doing that solidifies it, reinforces it, and clarifies it. Speaking it out loud has made my private, personal time with Jesus come alive. My prayer is no longer just a passing disconnected thought. It is an actual conversation, an appointment.

There is another thing that happens when I speak my prayers out loud. Satan hears them. He hears my verbalized commitment and devotion to Jesus. He knows exactly where I stand. He can't read my mind, but he can hear my words. When he hears negative, fearful things out loud that is a signal for him to attack. We all need to be very careful about what we verbalize.

What I do want Satan to hear are my passionate faith-filled prayers. I want him to know there's not even a reason to mess with me.

I urge you to try this. Cry out to the LORD with your voice. It will be more real to you.