Language Studies

Greek Thoughts

PROSEUCHOMAI* - Part 13 - εχηγεομαι (Strong's #1834)
To pray

Please note that all Biblical quotes, in this and all other lessons posted to Greek Thoughts, are from The Literal English Translation of the Bible produced by BTE Ministries - The Bible Translation and Exegesis Institute of America.

We are continuing with our study of the word προσεὺχομαι (Strong's #4336, pronounced prō'sūk-ō-mī**), which means "to pray." It is a word compounded from the preposition πρὸς (Strong's #4314, pronounced prōs**) meaning "to" or "toward," and the word εὔχομαι (Strong's #2172, pronounced ū' kō-mī) meaning "to wish, to desire." The combination of these two words gives us a simple understanding of prayer; that it is an expression of one's desires to God. However, this general description is not as clear cut as it appears to be; since it is necessary to biblically define the kind of desires that, when expressed to God in prayer, He guarantees to answer. This has been the focus of several parts of this study and we continue with it this week.

In the first nine parts of this study, we have learned that:

*God's answer to prayer is only guaranteed when the desire underlying a believer's prayer is for God's will to be done (1 John 5:14-15);

*those praying to fulfill their own hedonistic desires would not receive an answer (James 4:1-4);

*a double-minded person - one who asks God for wisdom but does not ask in faith- will not have his prayers answered (James 1:5-8);
We next turned our attention from the teachings of the Lord's disciples to His own teaching on προσεὺχομαι, finding that:

*Jesus' promise of response to prayer is reserved for those who pray in His name—desiring that His plan and purposes be done (John 14:12-14);

*God only guarantees an answer to prayer when that prayer is expressed under the influence of God's Spirit and His Word, thereby causing it to be in accordance with the words of Christ (John 15:7);

*Jesus expressed His desire in prayer ("…if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me"), but He concluded in acquiescence to the Father's will ("…nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."), as recorded in Matthew 26:36-43;

In recent weeks, we have been studying the Lord's teaching on prayer from Matthew 6:5-14. In verses 5,6, Jesus taught on the place for prayer, giving us the understanding that prayer is not for others to see, but is rather for a private time of communication with our Father in heaven. In verses 7,8, He presents prayer as being an expression of submission to the Father's will regarding every person and circumstance about which we pray.

In the past two parts of this study, we have been considering the principles of prayer as taught by Jesus in Matthew 6:9-13. To date, we have looked specifically at verse 9 where two of these principles are presented.

Matthew 6:9-13: The Principles of Prayer

9)

In this way therefore you pray (προσεὺχομαι); Our Father, the One in the heavens, sanctify Your name;

The first principle of prayer is found in the phrase, "Our Father, the One in the Heavens. " Because the phrase "the One in the heavens" modifies the term Father, we learn that the entire phrase "Our Father, the One in the heavens" is not an opening line used to announce an official prayer. It is, instead, an acknowledgement of the One to whom we pray; as well as being a summons to meditate on His nature. We studied a great example of this from Acts 4:23-30. The text tells us that the disciples had been threatened by the religious authorities and were told to stop preaching in the name of Jesus; the response of the disciples was to focus on the nature and being of the Father; and in so doing, their circumstances were brought into proper focus.

Last week, we took the second principle of prayer found in Matthew 6:9. Our focus was on the prayer request to be made after acknowledging and meditating on the One to whom we pray: We are to ask the Father to sanctify His name. The Greek word translated "sanctify" is ἁγιὰζω (Strong's #37, pronounced hä gē ädz' ō**), which means "to separate, to set apart." When we pray for the Lord's name to be "set apart," we are asking for the Lord to use all we do during the day to honor His name apart from all other names. This prayer parallels that which Jesus spoke in John 14:13, "And whatever you should ask in My name, this I will do, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son." From this we understand that we are not only to pray in His name; but that when we function "in" the name of the Lord, we move in representation of His purposes and plan, because we are functioning under the auspices of His name. Therefore, Jesus' promise of response to prayer is reserved for those who pray in His name—desiring that His plan and purposes be done.

10)

Your kingdom come; Your will happen, as in heaven also upon the earth.

This week we are studying the third principle of prayer, which is found in Matthew 6:10. The Lord teaches that we are now to pray God's kingdom come and His will be done upon the earth as it is decreed in heaven. This principle is the crux of the prayer-life of the believer and, in order to better understand it, we will look at John's presentation of the guarantee of answered prayer, which comes directly from Jesus' teaching as recorded in our study text.

1 John 5:14-15

14)

And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we should ask anything according to His will, He is hearing us;

15)

And if we know that He is hearing us, whatever we should ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him.

John says, of those who have asked according to God's will (resulting in confidence that the Lord is answering prayer), "…we know that we have the requests we have asked from Him." The Greek word for "we have" is ἔχομεν (pronounced ĕh' kō mĕn), which is the present active indicative form of [greek]eÀxw[greek] (Strong's #2192, pronounced ĕh' kō) meaning "to have" or "to hold." Its presentation in the present active indicative form tells us that when someone prays for the Lord's will to be done, the person (as he/she is currently at prayer), already has the answer to his/her prayer—which is that the Lord's will is being done.

Unfortunately, many believers have a problem regarding an accurate understanding of prayer because of a misunderstanding of John's text, and because of an inability or unwillingness to accept that difficult life circumstances are the Lord's will; consequently, such believers conclude that prayer must be used to direct the Spirit of God to answer according to the believer's perceptions and desires. However, the teaching of Jesus and the subsequent teaching of John both indicate that asking for the Lord's will to be done is the believer's expression of submission to the will of God being done here upon the earth. The believer is never presented as someone who uses prayer in an attempt to manipulate God's Spirit into answering prayer according to his/her own will. To the contrary, God's Word teaches that prayer is the means by which the believer submits his/her person and circumstances to the will of God. This submission in prayer is absolutely necessary in order for the name of the Lord to be sanctified and set apart in all we do; so that, as Jesus said, "the Father may be glorified in the Son."

Next week, we will continue to examine Jesus' teaching as we study the fourth principle of prayer from Matthew 6:9-13.

* PROSEUCHOMAI is the English font spelling of the Greek word προσεὺχομαι.

**English pronunciation guide for Greek words: āle; ăm; ärm; ēve; ĕnd; īce; ǐll; ōld; ǒdd; ūse; ŭp

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