I need to confess something to you all. I struggle with praying out loud in a group of people. I get so wound up, fear grips me. I mean, it really grips me. I fear I’m going to say something wrong or stupid. I fear I’m going to stumble over my words. (I mean, hey, I do that in normal conversations, lol)
Like Moses, I’m terrible with words. (speaking them, that is) My tongue gets all tied up and a bunch of rambling comes out.
At Prevail Church, at the end of the service, we get into groups and we pray. We pray for boldness, for compassion. We pray for whatever needs to be prayed for. It’s a time to just pour our hearts out to God.
I listen to the words of those around me and wish I could pray like that. I wish I didn’t have this fear of corporate prayer.
Well, as we gathered into our groups, I could feel the Lord impressing upon my heart to pray. He did this several times. And several times I would open my mouth and then shut it. Open my mouth, shut it….and before I knew it, I had lost my chance. I let the Lord down. I just know He was up there just shaking his head at my fear of public praying.
Last night as I was just doing some reading and writing out my thoughts, I looked up and saw a sticker I have on a notebook that says, “Let Your Faith Be Bigger Than Your Fear.” And I realized I really did let my fear overpower my faith yesterday.
Fear doesn’t come from the Lord. It says in 2 Timothy 1:7:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear is of the world. Fear is not godly. When we feel that fear creeping upon us, we must fight back with our faith. Fight back with, not OUR strength, but GOD’s strength. Because if we try to do it all by ourselves, we won’t get far. We’ll succumb to the fear. Just like I did yesterday.
Like my pastor has said in the past….”we must step over fear to reach faith.” Faith OVER Fear!
What fear grips you? Give it to Jesus. He’ll never let you down.
All You Need is Jesus 
Amen! P.S. God is not shaking his head at you. He loves you and He is smiling at you! None of us do it right all the time and we all need His grace and strength to endure. 🙂 God bless you!
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Amen! Great article!! God is always there. He is my strength! Thank you for sharing!
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I completely understand that fear. I’m not accustomed to praying out loud, and I get those same “what if I say something wrong” thoughts. I finally had to just… go for it. My first few times have been very short but to the point. 🙂 Even if it’s not eloquent, it’s okay. ❤ As you said – faith over fear. His strength, not ours.
"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…" Rom 8:26
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I used to be the same. I used to rehearse words in my head but never verbalise them. Thankfully, I started to speak and now I’m confident to pray publicly. Thanks for your honest article 🙂
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Thanks for sharing. I think we’ve all had times where we felt the Lord nudging us to do something but let our fear get in the way. That’s a great verse to remind us that faith can overcome fear.
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I had/ still have this same fear, and although I am getting better at it I still struggle because I don’t want to sound awkward or like I can’t speak. But I have found that whenever I have taken that leap to pray, that God somehow puts the right words in my mouth and when I finish I can’t believe that, that was me praying. Thank you so much for sharing! God Bless 🙂
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