UN-Quiet Time

Call unto me, and I will answer thee,
and show thee great and mighty things,
which thou knowest not.
Jeremiah 33:3

In past days, I have probably mentioned in my blogs any number of people who were of great influence in my life. Such influence in my life has often come to me in my latter years, while at times missing some valuable spiritual input from younger years.

Three ladies come to my mind who each taught me something vital about prayer...Aunt Ida from my home church during my growing up years; Granny Fancher, a very old lady who lived next door in an upstairs room and Mrs. Vineyard who lived down the alley from the last house I lived in before leaving home. The main thing I learned from them, but didn't think to practice for many years was the act of praying out loud. I personally witnessed this “spiritual art” in each of their lives at different times in my growing up.

Granny Fancher, during nice weather, would sit by an open, upstairs window, especially in the evening. She had a kerosene lamp on a nearby table that for the most part revealed only her physical form. Sometimes she would sing hymns, without thought that anyone could be listening. Then I would HEAR her pray. I remember she talked to God like He was sitting right next to her. I was too little to understand it all, but can still see her in that window.

Mrs. Vineyard lived down and across the alley from our house. With only a vacant field behind our house, her house was easily seen. Behind her house was a large chicken yard with a chicken coop almost the size of an average-size garage. Some neighborhood friends who lived nearer to her house than I did, knew something I didn't know until a certain day. As we were in my friend's back yard, she said, “There Mrs. Vineyard goes again.” I learned from that girl that Mrs. Vineyard would go into her chicken house and talk to herself. By now I'm about 11 years old and a new Christian. I ventured down to Mrs. Vineyards yard and into the chicken yard near enough to the door to hear Mrs. Vineyard talking to herself. I quickly learned she wasn't talking to herself, but to God. Just as quickly she saw me at the door of the chicken house and called out to me...I ran for my life, or so I thought at the time. I remembered some things I had heard her say and it dawned on me that she was praying. Perhaps it was the only private place she felt she had to meet with God to talk with Him.

I feel like I grew up with Aunt Ida who I look back upon and feel like she was the matriarch of our small Baptist church. When churches truly had Wednesday night prayer meetings, which we did, when prayer time came, we could all count on Aunt Ida to stand and pray. I must admit that at times one could almost hear a low groan from the young people because when Aunt Ida prayed, she really P-R-A-A-A-Y-E-D. Even in public though, one could tell that Aunt Ida was on speaking terms with God. More than on those Wednesdays, I noticed something else about Aunt Ida's praying. She lived hardly a half block from our church. Sometimes when I walked to the church to do some organ practice, I would deliberately walk by her house if it was nice weather. I don't care the time of day, I could hear through a screen door, Aunt Ida in her living room praying, pouring out her heart to the Lord.

The area in my spiritual walk where I have felt so weak has been in my prayer life. Oh I pray and know God hears and answers, but so often this part of my life is of personal disappointment. I'm the kind of person who can have 20 things vying for my attention. Satan loves that...distracting from anything of spiritual import. If I pray to myself, my concentration isn't what it ought to be. However, when I pray out loud, I'm almost forced just by the sound of my voice to stay on track. I also wonder if God ever grows weary of our whispers. We don't speak to anyone else in whispers, but the big majority of time, we do with God.

A sweet young friend recently put a suggested article on my Facebook. I would challenge anyone interested in an improved prayer life to look up this article. It is entitled “Stop Having Quiet Times” by David Powlison. I must admit the title took me back abit, but it very much goes along with what I've said to this point.

In this article, he reminded me that Jesus prayed aloud. If He hadn't, how would the disciples have known to ask Jesus to “Teach us to pray.” Daniel, prayed aloud three times a day at an open window, knowing he faced execution for doing such a thing. Most of the Psalms are written to be read or prayed aloud, not in a whisper or under one's breath.

I'm not saying it's wrong to pray silently. God hears us even in a whisper. God hears us no matter as to volume, but we benefit when we hear our own words spoken to our Father. We see folks in Scripture who prayed some prayers silently, usually when hearts were to broken to form words orally. That can be the case for us at times as well. 

Most of us are living with someone else in the same house, so praying aloud may need to be planned. I have found I can pray in a very low voice while taking a bath, sitting on my porch or other places I might not want to be at full voice. Mr. Powlison made a statement that made so much sense: “When you talk aloud you express the reality that you're talking with someone else, not simply talking to yourself inside your own head.”

We are encouraged in God's Word to cry out to God, shout for joy, sing aloud along with many other admonitions. I must say in these months that my prayer times have taken on new life. We all have our prayer lists, folks we've been asked to pray for or personal concerns that no one else knows anything about. Let's do ourselves a favor in enriching our prayer lives by SPEAKING UP and SPEAKING OUT.

Father, I love You and love when I can talk with You at any time, anywhere...lifting up my voice to you in praise, concern and just in general conversation. Thank You for this wonderful privilege granted to me by Your love for me. Thank you for wanting to listen to me. In Jesus precious name....Amen