What is Wordless Prayer?
Wordless prayer is not praying silently. Even when praying silently, one is using words in their mind and thoughts.
Wordless prayer may be defined differently depending on who is using it, but one site states:
“This can feel uncomfortable if you’re used to prayer being mostly words — requests, praise, Scripture read aloud. Wordless prayer asks you to set all of that down for a little while and just be present, without translating the moment into sentences for God or for yourself.
So here’s what to try: sit, and instead of speaking or even forming thoughts into words, just rest in his presence. When a thought comes, notice it gently and let it go, without following it into a sentence. You’re not trying to think your way to God right now. You’re just staying near him.”
This term may not be well known, but it is becoming more popular due to the Contemplative movement, which teaches that wordless prayer and being silent for a long period of time is the way to go “deeper” with God and have more intimacy with him. It is also sometimes connected with Contemplative Prayer which is usually taught more like a form of Eastern meditation (although this is not acknowledged, and the person giving instruction may not be aware of it), rather than normative prayer.
Many who advocate wordless prayer teach it as a way to be in the “presence” of God, and like the site above, they also promote the Contemplative practices of Lectio Divina, the practices of silence and solitude , and other practices not taught in Scripture.
The Teachers
The Contemplative teachers (such as John Mark Comer, Ruth Haley Barton, Peter Greig, and others state or strongly imply that prayer without words is superior to using words.
By “wordless” they refer to a state one enters where one is silent and essentially not thinking. The idea is that one must have an experience by being silent and putting thoughts away. Pete Greig states in a video that Contemplative Prayer is “experiential rather than logical.” This is a false distinction. Experience is not contrary to being logical; praying entails being logical or else one is not thinking or expressing him/herself. Words are based on logic or else they make no sense. This idea of not thinking may not be expressed outright by Contemplatives, but the methods they teach involve getting into this state.
The late Trappist monk, Thomas Keating (d. 2018), whose teachings are one of the biggest influences on this movement, writes in Open Mind, Open Heart, that prayer is ‘interior silence” and “detachment from” thoughts (p. 14). One must let go of every kind of thought, even devout thoughts, to reach the state of Centering or Contemplative prayer (p. 21; this is also found in his book co-authored with Basil Pennington, Finding Grace at the Center).
In Eastern meditation, it is believed that the mind, which is part of the material world, is a barrier to grasping “the true state of reality,” which is the goal of Eastern meditation. Keating had Buddhist monks teach meditation at his abbey and was influenced by both Hindu and Buddhist forms of meditation.
Most are not even aware of who Keating was, much less his reach. Bible Project Tim Mackie wrote an ode of praise to Keating in the Foreword of Tyler Staton’s book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools. Mackie also stated in a talk at Bridgetown Church, whose former pastor is John Mark Comer, that he learned about prayer from Thomas Keating.
Mackie has been endorsing and teaching principles of the Contemplative movement (also see this CANA article). The devastating truth is that Thomas Keating, like his good friend and colleague, Richard Rohr, was a follower of the false gospel of Perennial Wisdom.
What is Prayer in the Bible?
Prayer should be defined by Scripture and every prayer recorded reveals that it consists of speaking to God, whether in praise, thankfulness, petition, or in anguish, either silently or aloud.
People praying silently are mentioned, such as when Samuel’s mother Hannah prayed silently but her lips were moving. References to Jesus going off alone to pray indicate he may have prayed silently, but we don’t know. Whether silent or not, Jesus was likely praying the way we see him praying elsewhere, such as when offered prayers of thanks and when he prayed before raising Lazarus from the dead.
The prayer Jesus taught his disciples is in words, and nothing in Scripture indicates that one should practice a “wordless” prayer or a prayer detached from thinking.
It is normal to be unable to express deeper or turbulent feelings and thoughts in prayer, especially during a crisis. That may lead to just sitting silently as we try to form words, or think about God, or tell him we don’t have the words or don’t know how to pray. This difficulty with words is not what Wordless Prayer is about. Wordless Prayer is not a normal practice since it is based on principles of letting go of thoughts and deliberately entering a state of silence via certain esoteric methods.
What About These Passages?
Certain passages have been offered as possible examples of wordless prayer: Rom. 8.26; First Cor. 14.14; and Psalm 62.1.
Romans 8.26
“And 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.” LSB
There are several points in response to using this passage to support a practice of wordless prayer.
- The meaning of this passage is not agreed upon, and an unclear passage should never be and cannot be the basis for any doctrine of prayer or anything else. Unclear or disputed passages need to be seen in the light of clear passages.
- It is not clear that the “groanings” are literal or even how this is playing out in the person who is praying. Looking at commentaries such as here gives an idea of the various views of this verse.
- This passage is not a directive on how to pray, but rather is a statement about something the Holy Spirit does (not us).
- Nothing about the passage indicates a wordless prayer; rather it indicates that the Holy Spirit is aiding one in prayer – how he is aiding someone is not agreed upon or exactly known (some think the Holy Spirit is helping us pray; others think the Holy Spirit is praying for us). Our thoughts are in words, so even if we don’t have the right words, there is something on our mind that we are lifting to the Lord.
- This describes a supernatural activity from God versus a natural one of trying to reach a state in order to practice wordless prayer.
- Scripture does not contradict itself, so to take this one passage which has different understandings and say that it supports wordless prayer flies in the face of all of the examples throughout the Bible of prayers being said verbally.
First Corinthians 14.14
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” LSB
This passage is about prophesy and speaking in tongues. Paul writes that “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” The mind seems to be not producing thoughts or understandable words. However, Paul presents this as a negative if there is no translator, because he writes that there needs to be an interpreter of the message given by the person speaking in tongues or nobody is edified.
So even if one believes that speaking in tongues (and this is not necessarily a prayer) is not involving the mind, the message needs to be put into understandable words so that people hearing this are edified. If anything, this really goes against the idea of a wordless prayer (see other parts of this chapter).
This situation also refers to a supernatural scenario involving the Holy Spirit; it is not instruction to use techniques to get into a state of silence with no words or thinking. It has nothing to do with the wordless prayer idea of the Contemplatives.
Psalm 62.1
“Surely my soul waits in silence for God;
From Him is my salvation.” LSB
This verse is used by Contemplative teachers mainly to teach the practice of silence. In a CANA article about the misuse of this verse (and others), the point is made that
“the Psalmist is silent in contrast to those who ‘delight in falsehood’ and ‘bless with their mouth but inwardly they curse.’ The people referred to as ‘those’ are using words to lie and falsely bless. Silence is preferable to deceptive words.’”
It is a calm silence (this also does not mention prayer) of trusting God as opposed to the others David writes about. The point is that David is trusting in and waiting on God, and this has nothing to do with the wordless prayer taught in the Contemplative movement.
Nothing indicates that the psalmist is trying not to pray in words. As usual, the context gives the verse its proper meaning.
The Answer
The answer is no, the Bible does not teach people to do wordless prayer or that wordless prayer is a way to be closer to God. The examples of scripture that might be given, when examined, do not support this idea. Moreover, God’s revelation is in words! Language is built solidly on logic and reason, two concepts consistently downgraded in the Contemplative movement. Logic and reason are, in fact, rooted in the nature of God.
Becoming closer to God is taught in Scripture through the ways God has provided: reading and studying the Bible; prayer as modeled in Scripture; worship; fellowship with others in Christ; and service to the Lord. That is how one cultivates a closer relationship; there is no need for esoteric methods.
This wordless prayer is part of the larger invasion into the church of mysticism, which is taking one form as Contemplative teachings.
If you want to understand how to pray, look at examples in the Bible, and speak to God in faith and trust that he cares for you and hears you. He already knows our requests and needs, but we need to be humbled by asking and trusting him, and live out Christian love for others by interceding for them.
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