A dear, faithful CLCer writes, “sometimes I pray better silently.  When I pray aloud sometimes I stumble remembering Scripture or what I want the Lord to know, yet I could be laying in bed and just having a good time with my converstation with Him.   Any ideas about that?”

GREAT question.  I’m sure you’re not alone in feeling that you express yourself better to the Lord silently, in your thoughts, than aloud.  And there’s certainly a Biblical precedent for that, in the case of Hannah, who was noted in Scripture for her prayer in 1Samuel 1:1-18.  Note especially verses 12-15, where it clearly tells us she prayed, even poured out her heart to the Lord, but no sound was heard, for she prayed in her heart, silently.  And God answered her prayer!  So I know that praying silently is acceptable to the Lord.

However, I would be misleading you if I didn’t quickly add that silent prayer in Scripture is the exception, not the rule.  Instead the Bible repeatedly encourages us to “lift up our voice to the Lord” (see Psalms 5:2, 17:1, 18:6, Acts 4:24, etc.) and Hebrews 13:15 makes it quite clear that some of our praise must be verbal (“the fruit of our lips”).

So probably the best answer to your question is that both kinds of prayer are acceptable to the Lord – silent and aloud, but the normal practice in the Bible is to pray aloud.  The good news is that HE answers both – so let’s pray!

Hope that helps.  Now, what would YOU like to Ask the Pastor?