It’s a privilege to offer up our silent prayers at any time. But praying aloud is something you may want to do also. It’s not a rule; it’s just another way to be real in prayer. Speaking your words out loud may keep you from getting lost in your own thoughts.

Jesus never wanted prayer to become a showy thing. He tells the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18 about two men who both were praying out loud. He goes on to encourage us to pray in privacy, alone. Pray this prayer aloud today:

“Spirit of the living God, walk through our lives and minister to our personal needs. We ourselves hardly know the secret motives of our own lives, and we are so busy we seldom meet them face to face. Enter into the inward, private, untrodden recesses and the hidden corners of our souls where we often banish you. Listen as we speak aloud to you, the one who hears us. Companion of the companionless; inner resource of strength, comfort, and fortitude; deep well from which the living waters rise, be with us today. Amen.”