How do you pray?

[K. Ayato]

I'm just curious as to how you guys prefer to pray. Do you voice your thoughts out loud? Whisper? Are you uncomfortable being asked to open or close a group meeting in prayer?

Personally I like praying silently. I let my thoughts go out to the Lord. My dad says I should start verbalizing my prayers, but I still don't like speaking out loud. Not out of pride or anything, mind you, it's just that my thoughts can't find spoken words attached to them, and sometimes I'm ranting when I pray. Then I remember Hannah. When she prayed and asked for a son, she was praying in her spirit, and her lips moved, but she didn't speak.

I really don't think there's too big of a difference, really. The things that are on your heart and mind still make it to God's ears.

One last thing. After you pray, what lets you know your prayers have been heard? Note that I didn't ask how they were answered. I'm interesting in knowing how you guys are certain God heard your prayers. I don't mean to trust in feelings here, but after I pray, especially if it was about something that weighed heavily on my heart and/or mind, I get this overwhelming sense of calm, that everything's going to be all right. It's the peace the Lord promises us. No other way to explain it.

[Mave]

IDo you voice your thoughts out loud? Whisper? Are you uncomfortable being asked to open or close a group meeting in prayer?

I mostly talk to God silently and sometimes talk it out to help myself concentrate in praying. I voice out my thoughts loudly when I'm emotionally distressed - something like bawling. The bawling rarely occurs but when it does, it's definitely behind closed doors and usually at night.

I'm uncomfortable being asked to open or close a group meeting in prayer. I used to be OK with it but I guess it comes with practice (I haven't done it for a long time so I feel awkward now).

I really don't think there's too big of a difference, really. The things that are on your heart and mind still make it to God's ears.

Yeah, I don't think it matters how you pray as long as your heart is sincere and focused on Him.

After you pray, what lets you know your prayers have been heard?

Completely by faith. I think God does not have to prove that He hears my prayers to me and I have to understand that He will answer my prayers in His own Way, Timing and Will. Faith doesn't come after the sense of peace but rather the other way round. Believe first and then, peace comes.

[Sparrowhawk]

I too tend to pray silently, but as a English major specialising in literature I can tell you some reasons why many people believe in verbalizing prayer:

1. It makes you think harder about what you are saying
This is because you have to think about how to say what you are going to say and you hear what you are praying for/about yourself...it can be very revealing as to your motives and can also be very effective at making your prayer more intense. Jesus prayed outloud in the Garden right before he was crucified: it was the last time he would be able to pray to His Father by Himslef and He chose to do so outloud.

2. When you talk to a person, you do it outloud.
Praying out loud tends to reinforce in your own mind that you are actually talking to someone who has senses like you do, reminding you of just how real God is. We think things all the time even to inanimate objects (such as "STUPID TABLE" when u stub your toe on it ) but we dont tend to vocalize as much to things that dont understand sound

All in all, I don't think its a huge deal. I personally pray silently most of the time, either because I'm in a hurry or there are many people aorund etc, but I also have experienced the benefits of praying out loud particularly when I'm in great earnest.

[RedMage]

Most of my prayers are silent. If I'm by myself, well removed from any human intrusion, I sometimes pray (quietly) aloud.

Some people I know keep prayer journals where they write down prayers. Not just make a record of prayer requests, mind you (I do that too), but actually write down what they're praying. I don't do that, but I have prayed with people over IMs and my thoughts are certainly better organized that way than when I pray silently or aloud.

I'm OK with opening or closing a meeting in prayer, though I'm not all that "great" at it.

[sticksabuser]

Personally, I try to pray out load when I can (how loud depends on the setting), though I do also pray silently. The thing though is that when I pray, many times it takes me 10-15min+ (when I'm praying alone). So, if I'd be praying silently many times my thoughts wander. Verbalising and praying out loud helps keep me focused on my prayer (point 1 of Sparrow's post).

As for how I know that my prayer was heard, I believe it is totally by faith through the experiences that I've had with God... Simply put, I'd be foolish to be doubtful that he hasn't heard my prayers due to past evidence that he always does, and that even when everything is about to crumble, He always manages to get me through it all... That is my personal experience at least...

Praying out loud with a group: Well, I used t be self-conscious in doing that... I still am in some ways, but I believe I've gotten so much better at it (not at praying in front of a group, but at being willing to pray in front of a group)... I think it all comes with spiritual maturity (not that I don't need any maturity mind you... I need tons of it... its just that relatively I'm more mature spiritually than I was oh 2 years ago)... God helps us really realize that it doesn't matter what people think of your prayer... If your prayer is from the heart, then it will please God, and that is all the matters, no matter what setting you are in. I know that probably most of us know that, but I think that it takes God feeding you and helping you grow and teaching you to make us really realize many things including that. *drops two cents*

[K. Ayato]

A lot of us pray using almost exactly the same methods. I'm impressed!

[KhakiBlueSocks]

*drops two cents*

::catches the two cents:: No sence in letting cents go to waste...

I pray out loud in my room EVERY Time I get ready to drive out. I also pray EVERYTIME I get behind the wheel of my car, and before I go to bed at night. How do I know it works? Well, I have yet to get into any serious accidents, and God has always brougth me and Ackie-Chan (My car) safely home. Proof enough for me!

As far as praying with a group, I haven't had that many opportunites to do it, but it's cool! I'm just not the one to really lead a group prayer--lack of experience, maybe?

[K. Ayato]

Here's another question for all of you. Who do you address when you pray? I usually start it with "Father" or "Dear Lord", and end it with "In Jesus' name, Amen."

[Shinja]

i used to only pray silently but now-a-days its allmost allways outloud, though im not really a person who prays in public

[RedMage]

Here's another question for all of you. Who do you address when you pray? I usually start it with "Father" or "Dear Lord", and end it with "In Jesus' name, Amen."

I usually start my nightly prayers with "Heavenly Father" because that's the way my parents always did it when I was little. I generally use "Lord" to start other prayers or when addressing God in a prayer.

And I always end with "In Jesus' name, Amen" if I remember.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

Here's another question for all of you. Who do you address when you pray? I usually start it with "Father" or "Dear Lord", and end it with "In Jesus' name, Amen."

I use "Lord" throughout the prayer, and use "In Jesus' Name, Amen" at the end. That's the way it's been for 21 years, 11 months, and 28 days.

[CrimsonRyu17]

I usually tend to either whisper or just speak to Him in my mind. I really don't like speaking them out, especially within a group. But that's just me.

[Tenshi no Ai]

Hehe I must be a total nerd thansk to my Japanesey influence, but I just like saying "Kami-sama" along with things like "onegai shimasu" and "tasukete". For me, Japanese can just REALLY capture the emotion and impact in their words, I feel (especially use a whole bunch of emotions and impact and everything in a single word!)

I'm a silent type too. My brain constantly thinks, so I tend to gather my thoughts and do it through my mind. I'll utter words when I'm in super-serious mode. Either than that I find doing it outloud a little... intimidating. You see, I'm sometimes a stutterer^^ Also, I can never find the fancy words like others can and just flow nicely with it all. When outloud I add lots of "ummm and also..." and end it with "and, yeah" (like if it's in a circular group prayer-type thing). Sort of disliked those "go around in a circle" just for people like me who aren't great with it outloud. I know people like to encourage it outloud but for me I think, to each their own. He won't hear it any louder than the next by using a vocaly louder method^^

[Alexander]

Hehe I must be a total nerd thansk to my Japanesey influence, but I just like saying "Kami-sama" along with things like "onegai shimasu" and "tasukete". For me, Japanese can just REALLY capture the emotion and impact in their words, I feel (especially use a whole bunch of emotions and impact and everything in a single word!)

That's the same with me in my slow learning of the language. I've used words including "oudsan", "oucasa" for father and mother. Along with "Nani?" and other words to replace everyday words. I love the Japanese language for some reason I can't explain. (And you'll have to forgive me for any spelling errors as I'm working from memory. XD) I'd love to know what the words above mean too.

The way I pray has changed over time. I used to be very out loud but I can't do that anymore as I feel really nervous when I do it. I then started doing it in my own mind, but recently I've had a lot of trouble doing that too. And even more unfortunate, I'm nervous to talk to God that way too. So I'm doing something very different to help me.

I've decided that I'm going to take some chalk, go to the downtown area where I live, and write my prayer on the sidewalk. I have another reason for doing this as I hope someone I'm trying to reach will notice, but I'm really getting desperate to let my prayers out in some way.

I also start with either Dear Lord or Dear God, and end with, In Jesus' Name, Amen. Or "Thank you."

[Sammy Boy]

I pray silently at times, aloud at other times. Praying aloud helps me concentrate when I am tired.

Eyes are usually closed, except when driving.

[Warrior4Christ]

I mostly pray silently by myself. I used to be uncomfortable in praying aloud in a group, because my thoughts just wouldn't flow well to my mouth. This has improved a little, but still not always entirely comfortable at times.

I usually start with "Lord" and end with "In Jesus' name, Amen".

[sticksabuser]

I usually start with "Heavenly Father" and then end "In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, Amen"...

[Okami]

I pray aloud alot, usually if I'm alone; other times, like if I'm in bed, I'll silent-pray, whisperish sorta, if I'm at school, I'll pray silently in my mind; just 'cause my school is so...not very Christiany ._. But I don't like to pray in my head too often, I get distracted and my mind wanders >_>
That gets to be pretty bad....

Usually I'll start my prayers with "Father" "Lord" or sometimes "Jesus", usually ending in "in Your precious Son's name" "In Your name" or "In Jesus' name" something...it changes often.

I just like to talk to the Lord <3

[Dante]

I generally pray silently, but if I do verbalize I generally don't do so very loud as I prefer not to make such things uber public. I tend to say my prayers like a quick telephone or internet conversation with God. I start out with such odd phrases as "Hi God, it's me..." and end with "Chat later," and so on. I really don't like making prayers formal, as doing so makes me feel like I'm making some form of bussiness transaction. It's sorta like calling your dad, father dearest to me, so I just avoid it all and chat like normal. I do on occasion just leave out words and sort of try and communicate through the yearnings of my heart, avoiding all attempts to vocalize what no words can transfer anyways... as it does no good.

When I'm in physical pain, I'll often pray The Lords Prayer, to the point that it's like a mantra. I realize that that doesn't do much good. But praying while in pain helps ease the pain to a certain extent and The Lords Prayer doesn't require much thought (where thinking somehow brings my attention back to the pain itself). It also somehow keeps my mind on the topic that that pain I am feeling is there to teach me a lesson to sympathize and empathize with others who are in pain within the world both physical and emotional as well as to remind me to a small degree of the pain that Jesus suffered on the cross for my sins.

Finally, I really don't like opening or closing group sessions with prayer, mostly because some people I imagine could get offended or take it odd that I started the prayer with "Yo God, what's happening! That was one heck of a sunset last night, you really need to do that more often... Oh, and how's that girlfriend/future wife thing coming?" Like I said, definitely may turn a few heads, never mind the fact that such prayers are personal to me so I generally keep their contents and nature private (although as we can see I don't mind verbalizing how I pray here ).

Also, when I pray before I go to sleep I often do so while laying down. Only if I have something really really important do I kneel. That's just the way I am, I've wondered if it reduces the effect, but I figure if he is actually listening (There is always the possibility that my personal oddities truly just creeped him out too much, but I really don't think so), it doesn't matter what odd contortions my body is doing...

Wierd as always
Pascal