As a Word of Life student in second year I took a class on the theology of prayer and thought it would be a great word to dereligionize. Prayer, as far as I can tell, is a translation for the word “euchomai” which is a word that caries the idea of wishfulness and thankfulness behind it and is the most prominent word translated prayer in the bible. It shows up 54 times in the New Testament. There are other words that are taken to mean prayer as well. Words like entreating, intersession, and confession. These ones are less common in the NT but we still call them “prayer”.
Here is what I am not saying, what I don’t mean is that we should not call prayer prayer anymore. What I am saying is that we should know what the word actually means as opposed to presupposing the meaning by our religious culture. A prayer meeting by definition is a meeting for the purpose of thanking the Lord. Now before you go changing the name to “intersession meeting” let me explain. All I do here is bring to your attention the danger of living off of presuppositions and assumptions of the meanings of words in the Christian faith.
There are 6 word families in the Greek that are used for the idea of prayer in the bible. 1) “Euch” this is the root to the words proseuchomai, eucharisteo, euche, proseuche, and euchomai. All of these as said before carry the idea of thankfulness. 2) “De” for Deomai and Desis this is for entreating and asking a request. Found 13 times in the NT. 3) “ait” as in aiteo and aitema these Greek words is for request as well but they bring along with it a dire need from the one asking, maybe even the concept of a demand because of its strong nature, 12X in the NT. 4) “char” or “kair” gives the idea of joyful rejoicing and gratitude. It shows 7 times. 5) “Logeo” or root for word in our language the two words homologeo and exomelogeo are for confession and are found 4 times in the NT. 6) “kaleo” for epikaleo and parakaleo mean a reverential appeal or implore and is used 3 times.
The worst thing to hear is people “praying” and saying all the Christian cliché’s and really only speaking for the ears of the audience. Prayer is simply our form of communication with God. There is no difference in the words used for talking to God in the New Testament as for talking to people. It is simply a conversation. One of the things that really makes my day is hearing people talk to God in a real way. But way to often we begin to change our voice and the way we speak. We put on this mask when we talk to God because we are not engaging in a “spiritual” act. Let me let you know something; everything we do is spiritual as Christians. “Be in the world but not of the world” Jesus tells us. We are not of the flesh any longer. Our whole life revolves around the act of “putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:9). Read that whole chapter and you will see what I mean. There should not be any dressing up of the way we talk when we talk to God. Not only is that despicable in God’s eyes because He knows you are covering, but also it hinders other people from coming to Christ. I couldn’t tell you how many new Christians are afraid to pray out loud because they don’t know “the language”. What language?
Christians, it’s time to get real about your faith in this area. Lets stop talking to God as if we needed to change anything, and just pray because there is great power behind it and we hold fellowship with our Lord that way. Fun fact, there are dozens of prayers in the NT but only 3 or so of them are for any physical ailments or persecution. The prominent prayer of the NT was for various forms of spiritual healing and challenging. But what are all of our prayer meetings about? Mostly jobs, ailments, social situations, and people’s needs. Those are great prayers and have their place but not without a purpose. If people are being healed just to be healed then why would God answer that prayer? God is not interested in making our lives better, read Luke 9. He wants to get His gospel out. This is his goal and that should be our prayers, to make our lives spread the Gospel in a radical way. And I pray that this will really hope you grow closer to the Lord. After all, as my friend Ray Deck III puts it “the end of spiritual growth is not achievement, it is intimacy.”
Living in Him
~Hammy
That was one of my favorite classes at wobli
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