JOYFUL WORDS
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri

Out Loud

10/30/2014

0 Comments

 
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.   Romans 8:26

There is a big difference between being uncomfortable about doing something and being terrified about doing something!  Up until a couple years ago, spontaneously praying out loud put me in the terrified zone!  What if I said something wrong?  What if my words didn’t make sense?  What if a more eloquent prayer was in my midst and they thought my word choice was silly?  What if I can’t think of anything to say at all and I get struck by lightning because I’m a lousy out-loud prayer?  Oh boy did I have a list of reasons and reservations that prohibited me from leading spontaneous prayer every time I was asked. At first I was ok with the fact that I seemed justified in never being the prayer leader but then something started gnawing at me.  I had to think and pray about it for a long time before I could build up the courage to give it a try and once I took that first step, I learned so much; so today seems like the perfect day to share what I learned!

As I was wrestling with this, I heard a speaker say something that made a light come on in my head. (Actually it was more like a gigantic powerful search light!)  She said, “People today are sleeping with each other before they are praying with each other because the act of praying with another person is a deeply personal and intimate act.” Holy cow!  If you needed a prayer warrior I was your girl…but I was gonna do my prayin in my morning prayer chair with just me and Jesus! The out loud spontaneous stuff was better left to the professionals but I realized through that speakers powerful words, the Holy Spirit was calling me to hand him my terrified. The real lessons came when I started with just simple opening or closing prayer for a meeting here and there.  I was getting through them feeling a little less like throwing up each time until the night I was asked to do the opening prayer and the guy across the table from me did the closing and his prayer was so beautiful and simple and powerful and I felt like a prayer flop.  I asked him after the meeting how he was able to craft such perfect words and he said, “I don’t! Step one is ask the Holy Spirit to send the words he wants you to speak, step two, know in your heart he will and step three, get out of the way and don’t give a second thought to how you sound because it isn’t about you at all!”  That was some powerful advice!

This fall the seed has grown and I’ve been amazed at the situations and lessons I’ve gotten about praying out loud.  Last week I was doing a staff retreat for a lovely parish staff and at the end of the day one of the participants was upset after receiving a phone call and I bumped into her as she was headed into the church to pray.  We spoke briefly and I headed off to my car but I just couldn’t ignore the voice that was telling me to go back and ask her if she wanted me to pray with her.  It was as if my feet weighed a hundred pounds and I just couldn’t move them down the sidewalk so I turned around and headed back into church and ask her if she wanted to pray together.  I was glad I went back but I’m not gonna lie, I was a tiny bit relieved when she said she thought she would be ok. I was doubting instead of trusting.   I found out later that simply offering to pray with her was a blessing to her heart.  On Sunday I was asked to MC a fabulous night of praise and worship at our parish.  I prayed about it for days before I said yes and even though part of me wanted to say no, every confirmation in prayer told me to say yes.  As the night drew nearer I got more rattled.  It would be out loud praying at several intervals during the 90 minute event.  That was way out of my comfort zone especially since there was going to be a big crowd.  I prepared and printed and planned and felt ok about it.  When the evening started, they turned the lights way down and the flashlight I grabbed didn’t work so I couldn’t read a single word I had printed and written.  It was an instant lesson in trusting the power of the Holy Spirit!

God wasn’t finished with the subject yet!  On Tuesday’s the middle lovelies enjoy “Testimony Tuesday” and the speaker was talking about the importance of praying for each other and with each other.  On the fly, we decided to take all the kids to the school chapel and practice praying out loud.  She led us in beautiful prayer and demonstrated how to let the Holy Spirit send the words.  After she had prayed about a few of the kids intentions she asked if someone was willing to give it a try and pray for her.  She shared that she was newly pregnant and wanted someone to pray for that intention.  One faith filled courageous middle lovely volunteered to give it a try.  She did a fabulous job!  She prayed for a healthy baby and a good delivery; all the things you would expect someone to pray about but then she shocked me when she said, “And God, if this baby should happen to die, please help her know you will still be there to love her and take care of her.”  I was in tears and so was this beautiful woman.  The amazing thing about this prayer is that none of us had any idea that on that specific day, she had been troubled with the thought of losing that baby.  It was just heavy on her heart and none of us could possibly have known, but the Holy Spirit did and he put those words of blessing into the prayer of a child.  It was amazing!  As we sat there in the chapel I remembered the words of that speaker and I was determined to make it a false statement.  The next thing that came to mind was that I couldn’t expect the students to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself.

As with anything new and challenging, practice is the key.  Our mission is to get ourselves out of the way and just open our mouth and let the words of comfort, peace, love and blessing that can come only from God just come flowing out.  Awkwardness is a given at first but it goes away with experience.  Our willingness to waddle through something unfamiliar and frightening for the Glory of God is pleasing to the Lord and I’m all about pleasing the Lord how about you?

A Seed To Plant: You have 7 days to complete this task! Pick one person to pray out loud with.  If someone at work or school is going through a difficult or joyful time offer to pray together.  It can be as simple as Lord; I thank you for this person.  I ask your blessing upon them at this time, please wrap them in your loving protection and strengthen them.  Go ahead…give it a try…our eternity depends on it!

Blessings on your day!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Joyful Words magnet picture

    ​Click on the items below to expand the options available to you to explore the Joyful Words blog.

    Categories

    All
    1 Corinthians
    1 John
    1 Thessalonians
    2 Corinthians
    Acts Of Love
    Advent
    Ageing
    All In
    Amazing
    Anxiety
    Armor Of God
    Asking For Help
    Bad Habits
    Balance
    Baptism
    Be
    Beauty
    Being Gracious
    Blessed Mother Teresa Of Calcutta
    Blessing
    Blessings
    Brokenness
    Carry Our Cross
    Catholic Education
    Change
    Changes
    Cheerfulness
    Children
    Choices
    Christian Belief
    Christmas
    Colossians
    Commitment
    Comparisons
    Compassion
    Consistent
    Content
    Contentment
    Courage
    Crosses
    Crumbs
    Dad
    Daughters Of God
    Delight
    Desire
    Desire God
    Details
    Dicipleship
    Die To Self
    Discipleship
    Dissapointment
    Dying To Self
    Easter
    Ecclesiastes
    Education
    Election
    Encouragement
    Enemy
    Ephesians
    Evangelization
    Exodus
    Expectations
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Falling Short
    Family
    Fathers Love
    Fear
    Flag
    Footstool
    Forgiveness
    Fresh Start
    Friendship
    Fr. Mike
    Fr. Mike Schmitz
    Galatians
    Generosity
    God In Everyday Things
    God In Scripture
    Gods Beloved
    God's Enough
    God's Forgiveness
    Gods Gifts
    God's Guidance
    God's Love
    Gods Love
    God's Plan
    Gods P Lan
    God's Restoration
    Gods Strength
    God's Timing
    Gods Timing
    Gods Ways
    God's Will
    Gods Will
    Goodness
    Good News
    Grace
    Grandma
    Grandpa
    Gratefulness
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Gretness
    Grief
    Happiness
    Healing
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hebrews
    He Chose Me
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Thrusday
    Holy Thursday
    Holy Week
    Hope
    Humble
    Humility
    Identity In Christ
    Intimacy
    Isaiah
    James
    Jeremiah
    John
    Joshua
    Joy
    Judgement
    Justice
    Kids
    Kindne
    Kindness
    Labor
    Laughter
    Lent
    Lessons
    Light
    Listening
    Little
    Love
    Lovelies
    Luke
    Mark
    Marriage
    Mary
    Matthew
    Meekness
    Mercy
    Mom
    Mornings
    Mud
    Obedience
    Openness
    Parenting
    Parentng
    Patience
    Peace
    Pentacost
    People
    Perseverance
    Perspeceive
    Perspective
    Philippians
    Pioneers
    Pleasing God
    Poor
    Porch
    Positive
    Possibilities
    Pray
    Prayer
    Priorities
    Promises
    Proverbs
    Psalm
    Relationship
    Religion
    Respect
    Romans
    Sacrifice
    Sacrifices
    Sainthood
    Saints
    Samuel
    Scripture
    Seeking God
    Service
    Serving God
    Signs
    Silence
    Simple
    Sin
    Sinfulness
    Slow Down
    Small Stuff
    Steve Ray
    Stillness
    St. Mary's 4th Of July
    Strength
    Stress
    Suffering
    Surprises
    Surrender
    Temptation
    Thanks
    The Right Thing
    Time
    Troubled Times
    Trust
    Trust In God
    Truth
    Understanding
    Unravelled
    Valentines
    Waiting
    Weddings
    Word Of The Year
    Words
    Works Of Mercy
    Worry


    ​Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012


    Back to Home

    RSS Feed


      HOME                        BLOG                       SPEAKING                        WRITING                        HOSPITALITY                        MEET SHERI  

CONTACT: 989.640.6673
Picture
EMAIL

FACEBOOK

Twitter

Content is the intellectual property of Sheri Wohlfert 2017
Created by dhengesbach
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri