In previous discussions I have explained prayer is all our communication with God. This encompasses all our listening, talking, knowing, perceiving, dreaming, and understanding about God. Anyone can pray and most people are communicating with God on some level, including unbelievers, frequently. Whether it is intentional, or the wondering thoughts of a heart, or cries for help, it is still communication.

Today, we’re going a little deeper on defining prayer for the person with a heart to follow Jesus, the person willing to laying aside the self, to take up Jesus, and put Him at the center.

The Greek word προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai) is the most frequently used word in the New Testament for “pray” or “prayer” and it means: to pray, supplicate, or worship. It is used eighty-six times and always as a direct address to God for personal communion, petition, requesting, intercession, worship, thanksgiving, or confession.

What I find interesting is how the προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai) is made from two Greek words (origin words):

  • πρός  (pros): move toward, esp. for the purpose of nearness, and to make an exchange
  • εὔχομαι (euchomai): to pray, wish, will something, make requests, or make a vow

True, sincere prayer, at its most basic, is a laying down of our wishes and will in exchange for His wishes and will. To go deep in prayer requires an exchange of my will for His will. I lay ALL my wishes, wants, dreams, and ambitions down to find out what His heart wants and do that!

And here is where I find a dilemma for many of us. We want to pray. We want to honor God. We want to love Him well. Yet to do this, time with Him in the Secret Place is required. This is where the exchange begins to happen, and we begin to pray His heart and His will. The dilemma is, this is costly on our flesh. So instead, many believers simply avoid the Secret Place because this avoids the exchange, which ultimately avoids the cost to our flesh.

But the exchange is worth it. What we think we are giving up in the exchange is nothing in comparison to His intimate friendship, the increase of His presence, His constant companionship. God is better than anythig in this world… the world that He created… He is better! The exchange is worth it!