Does the thought of praying out loud fill you with anxiety? Even just thinking about it makes your heart beat faster, you start sweating, or you become overwhelmed with fear. You think to yourself, I’m not very good at praying, I don’t know what to say, or my prayers are too short.
Can you relate?
Being uncomfortable praying out loud is really common. But did you know praying out loud, in groups or even with a friend, can exponentially grow your faith? All it takes is some practice and motivation, so here are some reasons why you should pray out loud and how to start.
External declarations can change your internal dialogue. When we pray for things out loud, we change our internal dialogue and posture. Praying things like, “Jesus, You are enough” or “God is greater than my grief” will build your faith and help change the way you view things.
Keeps you awake. Jesus reminds us, “Our spirit might be willing, but our flesh is weak.” If you’re prone to falling asleep during prayer, like Jesus’ disciples did in Mark 14:37-38, praying out loud will help you stay awake. You’re more likely to stay awake through prayer when your brain is listening to what your mouth is saying.
Practice for when you are called upon in public. Like anything, we practice behind the scenes to get better for those moments we’re in public. It’s uncomfortable to be asked to pray for people and not know what words to say. Praying out loud privately helps us get comfortable with the sound of our own voice. Repetition gives us the confidence to approach God in public.
Sets the standard in your house. If we want our household to serve the Lord, we must set an example through our relationship with Jesus. Kids need to hear us praying outside the church walls. The same is true if you live with an unbelieving spouse, parent, or friend.
Encourages each other. Praying in a community of people draws the Lord in and builds our faith. In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us there is power when we pray in groups, and there’s purpose when we make declarations out loud.
Praying out loud is a bold move in your faith. When you unashamedly confess Jesus as your Savior, the enemy’s grip on your problem loses its power. Praying out loud is an internal decision speaking a bold declaration that Jesus sits on the throne, high above your struggles.
So where can you begin?
Start when you’re alone. This may seem awkward at first so try it behind closed doors where no one is listening or when everyone has left the house. You can even do this in the car on your way to work or the grocery store.
Whether this is your first time or you simply hit a rut in your prayer life, all it takes is practice. It gets easier and more comfortable the more you pray out loud.
Here are some cues to kickstart your out-loud prayers:
Use an outline for your prayer. One way to pray follows the A.C.T.S. model:
- Adoration: Praise God for who He is.
- Confession: Confess your sins and ask for His forgiveness.
- Thanksgiving: Thank God for His protection and provision.
- Supplication (an appeal to God): Make your requests known.
Create a prayer list. It can be immensely helpful to write down what you want to pray about before you get started. Use a journal to keep track of your prayers. To encourage your faith, take it a step further and mark the date your prayer is answered or follow up with an entry about God’s alternate plan.
Read Scripture out loud. David wrote many of the Psalms as prayers, so it’s a good place to start. Here are a few of our favorites: Psalm 30, Psalm 51, Psalm 63, Psalm 91, Psalm 139, and Psalm 145.
Keep it short. We can get caught up in the length of our prayers and struggle to come up with words to fill the silence. There is no rule on how long your prayer should be. There is no benefit to babble. God sees the heart of your prayers. Stretching them out for the sake of filling time is unnecessary.
Pray like you. God created you to communicate in a unique way. Don’t get caught up trying to say the “right” things, using “fancy” Christian terms, or praying like someone else. Prayer is meant to be a personal conversation with God. Like you would have between friends, family, or a mentor. Let go of how you think you should pray and just be you.
Put on worship music. Let the lyrics take the place of your words when you have nothing to say. As you learn the lyrics, begin to sing them out loud as prayers.
Prayer changes things, but it changes us more. Prayer can pivot a problem faster than a phone call to a friend. Praying out loud can transform what we believe and how we act when trouble comes. When you pray out loud, you are declaring victory by faith.
Beautifully written, thank you I needed this.
Thank you, Sheri. Your words encourage me to keep writing and sharing. If you want more of these posts delivered straight to your email inbox, be sure to add your email address to my mailing list. You can find this on the homepage under my picture. “Inspire Your Inbox” is a place to add your email so that every new post will be sent straight to your inbox as soon as it’s published.
thanks for this good teaching on praying out loud. i did know about this you have really help me a lot.
may our lord Jesus Christ remember you on that day went it comes. thank you once again.
My name is PastorLatshaw and what you have required is right if only all would do like the children lots of them do not believe in our heavenly father and I pray that all nation’s will except Jesus and let Jesus come into there heart
Thank you for this.
This article is what I needed to read this Saturday morning. The Church I attend prays in small groups at the beginning of service. I was and still am nervous when praying aloud. Your article has given me some good tips. Thank you and God bless you.
You’re very welcome, Paula!
Loved your suggestions on getting over fear of praying out loud. They will be extremely helpful to me in conquering my fear of praying out loud in groups.
Great article that hits home with myself and other brothers and sisters. I have been dealing with fear of public speaking and of course, public prayer. I have gotten better in bible study, leading prayer but found myself feeling awkward praying in public at a restaurant.
Excellent..thats how I was taught in a natural way to pray out loud(I heard my dad pray ever morning/I used the Psalms as prayers till it became personal/music was a big help..etc) I can truely confirm the above!
That’s an awesome testimony, Sonja! What a model and blessing to overhear your father pray out loud every morning. You are absolutely right, the Psalms are a great outline to pray from when we don’t know where or how to begin.
I absolutely love this post, Trisha.
My fiance’, now husband, taught me how to pray out loud. Our courtship began when we were lay leaders in a small congregation. We had the responsibility of opening the church and making things ready before the pastor and his family arrived for services. During that time, we would walk through the church and pray. I remember the day he asked me why I was not praying out loud. I don’t remember my answer but I just remember that I had not been taught to pray that way. But he told me that there is power in speaking how the spirit leads and that my words help set the atmosphere for corporate worship when the other saints arrived. We literally fell in love while praying together and hearing each other’s prayers. Fast forward to 14 years of marriage and three whippersnappers under our belt, it brings me so much joy to hear my youngest boy pray out loud with confidence. I love that they have learned to do it early and that they are not afraid to speak how the Lord leads them.
Thanks so much I appreciate the help<3 God bless
Hello Trish! Thankyou for this. I would just like say that it would be more helpful and biblically sound if you added a bible verse(s) backing up each of the reasons why it is good to pray out loud. I was reading my Bible today and had the thought of why I needed to pray out loud and when I found your article I was so happy but then disappointed when I couldn’t look up what you were saying in the Bible. This would be very helpful and I believe safer for you and your readers if you back up each and every one of your points with a biblical reference. Thankyou for taking the time to help others and write! Much love, God bless. ❤️ P. S Thankyou for giving a reference for the disciples falling asleep. 😊
I appreciate this comment, because I have been struggling to find scripture that supports this or specifically expresses that we should be praying out loud. In fact, I have always understood that it is better to pray quietly hidden away in your room (Matthew 6:6). Praying has always been so intimate for me, it’s difficult for me to do it in front of people. I’m sure, like anything else, practicing will make it easier, but it’s hard for me to feel motivated without scripture to back it up. I have been practicing praying out loud at home with my family for a couple years now and it still doesn’t feel natural. I am grateful that my kids at least are confident in praying out loud, since we do it with them everyday. Baby steps. Thank you for your post Trish, hope you can update with some biblical references!
This was so helpful. Thank you. God bless you Sis.💜💜
I found this and decided to write it down in my binder for reference. This is my first prayer outline I’ve found online “ I hope and pray that I benefit from this outline, as well as other believers who commit themselves to you father in Jesus name- Amen
Thank you for the very points on praying out loud. I will pray out more often thank you again.
Dear Trisha Thank you so much for your recommending the A.C.T.S method for prayers
PLEASE pray for my little granddaughter Lisette (2 years old) she has severe speech delay& on medication for seizures,..my daughter &her husband are suffering & are anxious, but I KNOW with everybody’s prayers! GOD will give us a Miracle! Thank you Trish. Gby🙏
Marcy, I’m joining you in prayer for your granddaughter Lisette, that her little body would come into agreement with the perfect design of our Creator. We call out to every cell in her body, every bone, every muscle, every organ to come into alignment with the perfect will of the Father. Jesus died so that her little body would be free from ailments, disease, sickness, and setbacks. Jesus, heal Lisette’s body so that she may live free from any delays in her speech, and free from seizures for the glory of your name, Jesus. Amen.
I was wondering though Sence we need as Christians to put God first in our lives shouldn’t we start “God may I ask that” and I would keep praying isnt this showing Reverence And respect to God. I dont want to start praying like this: “May I pray for this” it’s nice but we are not showing God respect then. It feels like I am trying to get something for myself. I am trying to show God respect when I pray.
Your heart is in a good place to question that, Brent. I fully believe it should be our attitude and desire to approach the Lord with great humility and reverence, with acknowledgment that we are but “poor and needy,” like King David did. This is the King of Kings! The Omnipotent God. It’s certainly most important, and would behoove us to ask for His will above our own. I do believe God has given us authority in Jesus’ name to ask for whatever it is that we would desire to ask for. In our asking we come to God in the name of Jesus, in the blood of Jesus, in the life and death and woundedness of Jesus. All that is Jesus’ is ours. That is the kind of power Jesus has in our lives when we claim Him as our Savior. John 14:14 reminds us that if we would ask anything in His (Jesus’) name, He will do it. Anything. “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Matthew 21:22 That should give us even more confidence to approach the throne of Grace with our ask. I believe it is honoring to the King of Kings to ask boldly, humbly, and most importantly, with our heart and spirit engaged with His. And if we should do it all “wrong,” well, thank you, Jesus, that we have come to the throne of Grace with our request. I like how theologian Charles Spurgeon puts it. He says, “… our Lord Jesus Christ takes care to alter and amend every prayer with His perfection and prevailing with His own merits. God looks upon the prayer as presented through Christ, and He forgives all of its inherent faultiness.”
Good information do have any literature on praying out loud.
Eleanor, I’m so glad you took the time to read this post. I haven’t looked into books or articles on this topic, but since writing this post over two years ago, I’ve heard a few pastors mention that we, as believers, should be praying out loud. I haven’t seen any documentation on why though. I have my own reasons based on my spiritual and biblical experience and my interpretation of the word.
Thank you Trisha! You’ve answered it all!🙏❤
Thank you for this. I now have a clear understanding of praying. I’ve struggled with being so right. God Bless you for this
Don G.
I’m REALLY glad that the Lord allowed me to find this. The enemy used my 34 yr. Old to attack yesterday & to try to shut down a prayer session with the grandchildren.
Thank you Father for confirming the TRUTH💖
I am new in christ and was looking what to pray how to pray and this came up on Google as soon as I seen pray like u I knew that was meant for me and jus started Thanking God I needed this and I Thank God for this article
God bless you and Glory be to God, thanks for this message! It is super helpful and thank you!
This is helpful thank you T,can I teach this to my church?
Yes, Octavia! I write for Life.Church (https://www.life.church/) and the Youversion Bible app, and this writing has been biblically approved by our team of editors. Please feel free to share. The more prayers we release into the atmosphere, the more power there is on earth under heaven’s gate.
† Jesus also said, _”When you pray, SAY…,” ( – not think.)
† God created what He wanted by SAYING, (not thinking) “Let there be…”
So good! Great observation! Thank you for sharing this.
I’m learning to pray aloud, your message is well received!
I so agree, praying out loud also helps others around you learn how to pray. Prayer is something not often taught on, they treat it like it’s something we should just know. Prayer is learned, prayer is observed. Also, satan doesn’t read our minds, if e pray out loud with authority, it weakens his grip in that situation. This is such an under utilized tool in the Christian world. Pray with me that I can address it with my church.
I agree, David! And I will certainly be praying for wisdom with timing and words when you bring this up to your congregation.
Why pray out loud for everyone to hear you when it is God you are praying to..?!
Hey Al, I appreciate your question. This isn’t meant to say we are praying out loud in hopes to attract attention from an audience. God is looking at the motivations of our hearts. This kind of praying out loud, whether it be in your private place of prayer or when you may be called upon in public spaces, releases great power into this world.
Could you share scriptures that tell us to pray aloud for others to hear? What would you show people in God’s Word that would explain the need for them to not just pray alone in their prayer closet, but that we are called to pray aloud for other to hear? Thx
(This is an ongoing debate in our family, and I was hoping for your take and scriptural reference. Great article btw… 😉 )
I pray in class by myself out loud before all of my other classmates get to class and actually into the classroom. EVERYONE NEEDS TO HEAR THE NAME OF JESUS!