Have you ever been to a worship conference or another church and heard another worship leader pray an elegant prayer? And you think to yourself, "Man! I could never pray like that!" Well, first of all, our goal as worship leaders isn't to pray elegant prayers (see Paul's words in 1 Cor 2:1-5). But, chances are, those worship leaders didn't just wake up one day with the ability to pray like that.
Those worship leaders spent time in private prayer which in turn affect their public prayers. That means that, with a little bit of effort, you can improve your public prayers too. All it takes is simply praying in private - which you should already be doing as a result of your faith anyways!
Here are 3 ways your private prayers affect your public prayers:
1 | Private prayers build your prayer vocabulary
As you pray in private, your "prayer vocabulary" is built up. You literally build up a prayer language - and not in a super spiritual sense - just in the sense that as you pray more, you find more to say.
Think about when you first started praying, you probably prayed general prayers. Over time, that language has grown as you've practiced praying. You now pray for things you didn't even know you could pray about when you first started praying.
The same is true for your public prayers. As you pray more in private, you build that vocabulary which overflows into your public prayers.
If you want a place to start building your prayer vocabulary, take 5-10 minutes each morning to sit down and pray the Psalms out loud.
2 | Private prayers make you more confident with praying in general
Any time you do something more frequently, you become more confident with it. Whether that's cooking, driving a car, or playing an instrument. What once took lots of effort and thought, is now second nature. The same is true with praying. The more you pray the more comfortable you become talking with God. And then, that private comfortability flows into public comfortability.
3 | Private prayers inform your public prayers
In your private prayer time, God often reveals to you what you should be praying for in your public prayers. Use those promptings to guide your public prayers.
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