Praying Aloud

Jesus prayed out loudly in "The Lord's Prayer" of John 17, which was his final revelatory prayer where he revealed the Father to the disciples. His prayer was audible such that the disciples could hear and later was recorded by John. This prayer has been a treasure to Christians throughout the ages and to you and me in 2023. Five times throughout the prayer, the word, "pray" or a reference to praying, is used. This means that it is important for us to stop and think about the prayer, especially, Jesus' stance of praying out aloud.

Oftentimes, I come across Christians who are afraid to pray out loud when they are asked to do so. I am not saying that we should not pray silent prayers, but I am saying that we should not allow fear, intimidation or not knowing what to say, to stop us from praying out aloud.

The things that we should learn are therefore:

1 . Jesus demonstrated praying out loudly, so as Christians, we can emulate him, and pray out aloud, when we are asked to do so.

2. Should we not know what we ought to say when we pray, we can follow Jesus' example by praying for the desires that are on our hearts. For example, in verse 24, Jesus prayed to the Father, telling him that He desires those who He gave him, should be with him where He is, to see His glory, which the Father gave him because He loved him before the foundation of the world. That was a powerful and deep desire of Jesus' heart, which he poured out to the Father. He was modelling how to pour out the deepest desires of one's heart. Likewise, if we do not know what to pray we should pray for the deep desires that are in our hearts.

3. As believers, we should not allow fear to stop us from praying out aloud.

A believer who may be hung up on praying out aloud should not allow fear to rob him or her from the power of praying audible prayers. As a person who is afraid, you may,

"Oh, it’s easy for you to do."

No, it has not always been easy for me to pray out aloud. I remember that while I was in Bible school in 2009-2011, Paster Roberts Liardon, prayed boldness over me, that I should be bold and not be intimidated. It was from then that I took the plunge to pray out aloud with deeper convictions. I, therefore, pray for you, that you may pray loudly and with boldness and confidence!

Jesus' disposition in his final prayer of John 17 was that of loud prayer to his Father, such that the disciples heard and John was able to record. We can therefore learn to pray out aloud, pray the desires of our hearts, and be bold and courageous when we pray.