Loud and Proud or Private and Silent?

I have been wondering do we pray silently, out loud, or both. The Bible does not specifically mention praying silently or out loud. I did a bit of research and came up with a conclusion.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” (Psalm 139:23) “Yet you know me, LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! (Jeremiah 12:3) In Matthew 12:24-26 and Luke 11:7 Jesus knew the evil thoughts of the Pharisees. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) “The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight.” (Proverbs 15:26) “Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me, and he told me to say: “This is what the LORD says: That is what you are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I know what is going through your mind.” (Ezekiel 11:5) “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. (Psalm 139:2-4) Our Father knows all about us and knows what is going on inside us. God can hear our thoughts just as easily as He can hear our words.

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“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6) This tells us about prying in private. There is nothing wrong with praying silently as long as you are not doing it because you are embarrassed to be seen praying.

There are some benefits to praying out loud. It will keep you awake and your mind focused. It forces Satan to flee if you pray in Jesus’ name. It gives you experience and confidence if you pray in or with a group of people.

There are also some benefits for paying silently. “pray continually,” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) You can pray all day long in your mind. Praying silently will help you be calm “He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10) As stated above God knows our hearts and minds so when we can not find the words in prayer He knows by the way of the Spirit. “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 through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26).

Sometimes being quiet in prayer is appropriate and sometimes out loud prayer can be appropriate as well. Pray the way that feels right and is comfortable for you and is appropriate to the situation. God will hear you whenever and wherever you pray. He hears our prayers on all occasions.

Luke 11:1-12 is Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer:

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.’
He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ‘Father, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’
Then Jesus said to them, ‘Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
‘So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

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In Spite of One’s Better Judgement

Why do people give in to certain temptations? Temptation is a desire to do something wrong or unwise. A thing or course of action that attracts or tempts someone. It is also known as: desire, urge, itch, impulse, inclination, allurement, enticement, seduction, attraction, draw, pull, appeal, fasceination. Temptation is usually an act with negative connotations that tends to lead someone to regret the action. “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives to death.” (James 1:15) 

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Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! 
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; 
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. 
Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food 
until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:1-24) Since the beginning of time Satan has continually used this tactic with all of us.

I have contemplated many times, and have been angry just as many, how Adam and Eve could have been so stupid to have thrown away all the wonders God had given them. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) I have come to a realization that I most certainly would have fallen for Satan’s tactic, as I have done so in the past. Now with God’s amor and strength I am better protected and more wise to the devil’s ways.

I hear a lot of people say, “God is tempting me.” In James 1:13 we see this is not true, “When tempted, no one should say ‘God is tempting me.’ For God can not be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” ( James 1:13) Temptation comes from Satan as Jesus speaks about this, “He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’ ( Mark 8:32-33)

In the Gospels of Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13, is the accounting of Jesus’ temptation. After 40 days without food, Jesus was hungry and weak. Ahead of Him loomed the cross. But all He had to do was listen to the devil to change all that. Before Him was a golden opportunity to satisfy His body and avoid the torment of crucifixion. But He didn’t give in. Jesus having refused each temptation, the devil departed and angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus. He showed how important it is to see some situations as temptations to be resisted rather than opportunities to be seized.

We learn from Jesus’ temptation that when we have an occasion to sin, God will provide a way for us to escape or He will give us the strength to resist it. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). By relying on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God as Jesus did, we can resist temptation.

Temptation wears a disguise when it slithers into our lives. Satan uses the same tactics today as he did way back at the beginning of time. Satan is the ultimate source of temptation in our lives. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it, or you will die.” (Genesis 3:1) “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) God’s Word warns us, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Cor. 11:14-15).

As Christians we must be vigilant to prevent such a crafty deceiver from sneaking into our lives. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) We need to be watchful so that we can evade temptations.

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