WHAT IS PRAYER?
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Prayer means many things to many people on earth most especially people who are religiously inclined, many people have different opinion about the meaning of prayer, the importance and the methodology, a true and clear understanding of prayer is very important in developing an effective prayer life.
In the Bible many words are use to describe the act of praying and most of the these words carries different meaning but the same concept, an example of such word is an Hebrew word “tephillah” which means an intercession, the word intercession is derived from the word Interceding which means to standing in for someone else, it can also mean to mediate as a mediator, another Hebrew word interpreted as prayer or praying is “palal” which means to make a supplication or to ask for favor and that is what prayer means.
There are other words in the Greek language used in the new testament of the Holy Bible to describe prayer or praying and one of such word is “Euchomai” which means to make a wish, this word carries almost the same meaning like the Hebrew word “palal” and another Greek word for prayer is “Proseuche” which literally means to worship, in the new testament of the Bible prayer went from a “ritual” into a “rite” this implies that prayer is more than just interceding or making an appeal it is an act of worship unto God, when this concept is printed in the heart of a true believer the act of praying would be done with deep reverence unto God and in such atmosphere miracles are inevitable.
Many people also define prayer as an act of talking to God which is just one part of the truth, rather we can say that prayer is an act of communicating with God, the word communication means exchange of information, which means that prayer is an opportunity to talk to God and allowing God to speak back to us, when this is done then the act of praying is complete, the word communication is also taken from the word communion which means the coming together of two or more persons for a common interest, it can also mean fellowship, so we can say prayer is fellowshipping with God.
In summary we can say that prayer is an act of communicating with God in the sense of worship based on sincere love and reverence for God, when we understand and keep this concept of prayer in our heart, our mode of praying will change and we will develop an effective prayer life, this means we will not have to struggle to get answers to our prayers, we should know that prayer is sacred and not a “ritual” I mean it is not something we do to please God, but something we do because of its necessity, our Lord Jesus knew this and that is why he spent more time praying more than anything else, our intimacy with God is the key to prayer answer.
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Thank you for reading
