My birthday — #74! A day for spiritual reflections!
Perhaps in my private prayers, I do not pray “out loud” often enough in. Thinking (rather than audibly saying) the words I share with God is powerful. I am confident God knows and “hears” my thoughts, meditations, and communication. I know that the Spirit intercedes when I am hesitant and incapable of expressing my spiritual wrestling. In quiet, internal meditation I have known what it is to be aware of God’s presence and to relax and relish my relationship without words. But is there not also a value in audible private prayer?
In our audible prayers during Christian gatherings, we speak to God, we speak to another, and we speak on behalf of others. In addition, there is another level of communication taking place as we speak to ourselves. Perhaps we need to experience audible prayer during our times of private prayer because we are a little dense, even in some sense deaf, to borrow the words of Peter Rollins. In prayer we can verbalize and hear in our own words some of our deepest fears, longings, joys and hopes. As we express these, we hear them and gain insight into our feelings.
I have for several years maintained that one advantage we preachers have is that we are weekly given the opportunity to verbalize our faith and that we get to hear our bold affirmations of what we believe. (Of course, it is possible to preach so as to never affirm personal faith and belief; but, in my judgment, preachers who so preach miss one of the great blessings and joys of ministry.)
In preaching, the preacher can be involved in two or three simultaneous conversations—preaching and speaking so that the congregants hear, God hears, and the preacher himself also hears. In audible private prayer, the Christian has the blessing of two conversations. We speak to God; we also speak to ourselves in an effort to overcome our spiritual deafness. In audible prayer, we may for the first time hear feelings that were previously a mystery to us.
Perhaps you have heard the claim: “in Scripture, God speaks to us; in prayer, we speak to God.” The statement is true, but I suggest an addition. In prayer we speak to God–revealing ourselves to God, revealing our inner world to the God of heaven. In prayer we also reveal this inner world to ourselves.