Dictionary: Prayer

A distinction needs to be made between the various occurrences of the words “pray” and “prayer” in most translations of the Bible and the modern connotation of the same words. In the OT, the main Hebrew words translated as “to pray” and “prayer” (palal and tepillah) refer to the act of bringing a petition or request before God. They do not normally, if ever, refer to the other elements that we today think of as being included in the act of praying, such as praise or thanksgiving. The same is the case in the NT, where the main Greek words translated “to pray” and “prayer” (proseuchomai and proseuchē) also specifically denote making a petition or request to God. But other words and constructions in both Testaments are also translated “to pray” and “prayer,” and this article will deal with the larger concept, including praise, thanksgiving, petition, and confession, as opposed to the narrower meaning of the particular Hebrew and Greek terms (see also Praise; Thanksgiving; Worship).

Old Testament

In the OT there is no language or understanding comparable to modern ways of talking about prayer as conversational or dialogical. Prayer does not involve mutuality. Prayer is something that humans offer to God, and the situation is never reversed; God does not pray to humans. Understanding this preserves the proper distinction between the sovereign God and the praying subject. Therefore, prayers in the OT are reverential. Some OT prayers have extended introductions, such as that found in Neh. 1:5, that seem to pile up names for God. These should be seen as instances not of stiltedness or ostentation, but rather as setting up a kind of “buffer zone” in recognition of the distance between the Creator and the creature. In the NT, compare the same phenomenon in Eph. 1:17.

Many of the prayers in the OT are explicitly set in a covenantal context. God owes nothing to his creatures, but God has sworn to be faithful to those with whom he has entered into covenant. Thus, many OT prayers specifically appeal to the covenant as a motivation for both those praying and God’s answering (1 Kings 8:23–25; Neh. 1:5–11; 9:32; Pss. 25:10–11; 44:17–26; 74:20; 89:39–49). In postexilic books such as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, an important feature in the recorded prayers is the use of prior Scripture, praying God’s words (many times covenantal) back to him (in the NT, see Acts 4:24–30). Also, the closeness engendered by the covenant relationship between God and his people was unique in the ancient Near Eastern context. So Moses can marvel, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deut. 4:7).

Prayer must be made from a heart that is right toward God. There is no guarantee that God will hear every prayer (Ps. 66:18; Prov. 1:28; Isa. 1:15; 59:2). For the most part, the “rightness” that God requires in prayer is “a broken and contrite heart” (Ps. 51:17; cf. Isa. 66:2).

Although several passages talk about prayer in the context of sacrifice (e.g., Gen. 13:4), there is surprisingly little emphasis on prayer in the legal texts about sacrifice in the Pentateuch, no prescriptions for the kinds of prayer or the words that are to be said in connection with the sacrifices. Interestingly, however, in later, perhaps postexilic contexts, where there is no temple and therefore no sacrifice, we find texts such as Ps. 141:2, where the petitioner asks God to accept prayer as if it were an offering of incense and the evening sacrifice (cf. Prov. 15:8; in the NT, see Rev. 5:8).

A presupposition of prayer in the OT is that God hears prayer and may indeed answer and effect the change being requested. Prayer is not primarily about changing the psychological state or the heart of the one praying, but rather about God changing the circumstances of the one praying.

There is a striking honesty, some would even say brashness, evident in many OT prayers. Jeremiah laments that God has deceived both the people (Jer. 4:10) and Jeremiah himself (20:7) and complains about God’s justice (12:1–4). Job stands, as it were, in God’s face and demands that the Almighty answer his questions (Job 31:35–37). The psalmist accuses God of having broken his covenant promises (Ps. 89:39). While it is true that God does, to some extent, rebuke Jeremiah and Job (Jer. 12:5; Job 38–42), he does not ignore them or cast them aside. This would seem, ultimately, to encourage such honesty and boldness on the part of those who pray.

Literarily, accounts of prayers in narratives serve to provide characterizations of the ones praying. The recorded prayers of people such as Abraham, Moses, Hannah, Ezra, and Nehemiah demonstrate their true piety and humility before God. By contrast, the prayer of Jonah recorded in Jon. 2, in its narrative context, betrays a certain hypocrisy on the part of the reluctant prophet.

New Testament

The depiction of prayer in the NT is largely consistent with that of the OT, but there are important developments.

Jesus tells his disciples to address God as “Father” (Matt. 6:9; cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Although recent scholarship has demonstrated that “Abba” is not the equivalent of our “daddy,” it expresses a certain intimacy that goes beyond what was prevalent at the time, but retains an element of reverence as well. God is not just “Father,” but “our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Even Jesus addresses God as “Holy Father” (John 17:11), “Righteous Father” (John 17:25), and “Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matt. 11:25). And Paul, as mentioned earlier, uses a buffer zone, rarely in his epistles using the word “Father” by itself, but instead referring to “God our Father” (e.g., Rom. 1:7) and frequently using the phrase “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31; Eph. 1:3; cf. Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:3). God is our Father, but still he is a Father before whom one reverently kneels (Eph. 3:14).

Prayer to God is now to be made in the name of Jesus (Matt. 18:19–20; John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23–26). While there is some debate as to the exact nuance of this idea, it seems clear that, at the very least, prayers in Jesus’ name need to be ones that Jesus would affirm and are in accordance with his holy character and expressed will. It is, in essence, saying to God that the prayer being offered is one that Jesus would approve.

Prayer can also be made to Jesus (John 14:14), and such devotion to him in the early church is evidence of his being regarded as deity. The instances of this in the NT are rare, however, and generally either exclamatory or rhetorical (Acts 7:59; 1 Cor. 16:22; Rev. 22:20). The norm would still seem to be that prayer is to be made to the Father, through Jesus’ name.

Unlike anything prior in the OT, Jesus tells his followers to pray for their enemies (Matt. 5:44). Jesus and his followers serve as examples (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60).

The Holy Spirit plays a vital role in prayers. It is by him that we are able to call out, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). The Spirit himself intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26). Our praying is to be done in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18; Jude 20; possibly 1 Cor. 14:15).

Jesus encourages fervent and even continual or repeated prayer (Luke 18:1–8), but not showy or repetitive prayer (Matt. 6:5–8).

Jesus becomes the model of prayer. He prays before important decisions (Luke 6:12–13) and in connection with significant crisis points (Matt. 14:23; 26:36–44; Luke 3:21; 9:29; John 12:27). He offers prayers that are not answered (Luke 22:41–44) and prayers that are (Heb. 5:7). Even as he tells his disciples to always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1 [which is also the meaning of the sometimes overly literalized “pray without ceasing” in 1 Thess. 5:17 NRSV]), so he himself wrestles in prayer (Luke 22:41–44; Heb. 5:7). He has prayed for his disciples (John 17; Luke 22:32), and even now, in heaven, he still intercedes for us (Heb. 7:25). Indeed, our intercession before God’s throne is valid because his is (Heb. 4:14–16).

Synonyms: invocation, intercession, devotion, appeal, plea, entreaty, petition, solicitation, supplication, request, suit
Antonyms: demand something, insist
Showing 626 to 650 of 4877 results
626. Trees
Jeremiah 16:1--17:18
Sermon
King Duncan
... wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert-like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island. The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the island, and he was able to eat ...
627. The Secret Of A Great New Year
Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 4:12-17
Sermon
King Duncan
... thousands. His messages are broadcast all over the world. Robert Schuller was just four years old when he decided on his life's goal. He prayed every night: “Lord, make me a preacher when I grow up." Schuller says his father cried when he heard his young son's prayer. Forty years later, Schuller's father cried again as he told Robert of his own secret dream. He had once prayed to be a pastor. But his parents had died when he was just a boy, and Schuller's father had gone to work to support himself. So he ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
... and we Christians bind together, He is there. Want to know where to find Jesus? Here's the secret: Get together with someone else who is a follower of His for the express purpose of studying His word, or worshiping Gis name or lifting up petitions in prayer, or binding the broken hearted, and He will be there, guaranteed! I. We are not alone. It is very easy to be in despair. When you have no shelter from the storm, despair overwhelms you. The Psalmist cries out "Save me, O God, for the waters have ...
629. Don't Be Ashamed . . .
2 Timothy 1:1-2:13
Sermon
King Duncan
... a real man writing to a real, though younger, friend.] The first thing Paul does in his letter to Timothy is to express his gratitude for the kind of person Timothy is. He affirms him. "I am grateful to God . . ." he writes, "when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day." This is the kind of letter a parent might write to a son or daughter who is away at college or serving in the military. "I just want to say how proud I am of you." Parents, you can never say that too often to your children ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... . Actor Kirk Douglas shared an amusing story in his interview. A poor, blind, childless man spent his days praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem for some good fortune from God. Imagine his surprise when God spoke to him and offered to fulfill one of his prayers. So what should the man pray for? He could pray for wealth, but he had no children to pass it on to. He could pray for sight, but then he'd be able to see his incredible poverty. He could pray for children, but he was too poor to support ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... John, Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life. There are many meanings to this symbol of “Bread,” of course. Sometimes we call bread “the staff of life.” Jesus well knew the necessity for daily bread. In the pattern prayer we sometimes call the “Lord’s Prayer” (but which is really “the Disciples’ Prayer) He taught us to pray for it. He did say that we do not live by bread alone, but He was wise enough to know that without bread, we do not live at all! We are not purely spiritual creatures ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... strayed from all I believe. I’m bless’d with an iron will. Had I been made The partner of Eve We’d be in Eden still. C’est moi! C’est moi! The angels have chose To fight their battles below. And here I stand as pure as a prayer, Incredibly clean, with virtue to spare, The godliest man I know.....! (CAMELOT by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, New York: Random House, 1961, pp. 29-30) But, as we all know, in Lancelot’s case, his pride went before his fall—to the charms of Queen Guinevere. But ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
... . Our faith commitment to Jesus Christ, while deeply personal, is never private. G.K. Chesterton was absolutely correct when he said, "A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun, moon or stars." Every time we pray the Lord''s Prayer, we declare--give us this day OUR daily bread-- not give me this day MY daily bread. We are reminded that our "bread" must never result from the deprivation of any other human being on the face of the earth. We are reminded that we are part ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
... is the cry from the Cross--not comfortable Hilton Hotel in Jerusalem. I am thankful today that the Savior who loves us enough to go to the cross does not give us a cold glance and shoulder from the cross but cries out with great feeling a prayer of petition addressed to his Heavenly Father. The artist, William Holman Hunt, once painted what I believe to be one of the most insightful pictures into the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work depicts a carpenter''s shop in Nazareth. Jesus is standing by a ...
635. Entrustment
John 17:6-19
Sermon
Robert Noblett
... day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints" (Psalm 77:1-3). But more specifically, this priestly prayer is a prayer of entrustment. It is found in John between the accounts of Jesus' last supper with his disciples, and his betrayal and arrest. He knows what's coming and he entrusts both his life and legacy to God. The dominance of this theme is striking. Entrustment ...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... born. But in my church home I was not taught how to live the Christian life. No one told me about the Holy Spirit or prayer or how to study the Bible or witnessing. And I did not grow. And slowly I began to move backward, so that by the time ... in my life -- football, popularity, girlfriends, unfulfillment. And I saw that it was no good apart from him. I sighed and with a simple prayer of surrender prayed, "Why not." There and then a great feeling swept over me. It was as if someone had opened the door of ...
Sermon
Curtis Lewis
... us in doing God's will. In relationship to the community of believers, we can depend on others in the body of Christ to help us understand God's will. God still takes the divine initiative and speaks to us through the Holy Spirit via scripture, prayer, circumstances, and the Church. God is not in the business of hiding his will and purpose for any of us. From the prophetic initiative the scripture invites us to look at ... The Prophetic Model In Deuteronomy 18:15-20, Moses becomes the model for any prophet ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... of the need for lamentation (vv. 15-19). Joel calls the people to more than a cultic or external return; the cosmetic approach will not be sufficient. The prophet expects the people to change their personal conduct. Joel is confident that God will hear the prayer of the people because God is "slow to anger," "rich in kindness," and "relenting in punishment," but the people must pray. They cannot expect God to act on their behalf without some outward sign that they are changed. In other words, the prophet is ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... the solid foundation, the undergirding, the strong rock. Listen, parents -- grandparents, too. If you want to teach your children faith, the best way to do that is to let them see an experience of your own faith. Of course you are to teach them prayer. Teach them special prayers. Help them memorize scripture, but remember it's more important for them to see you pray and to hear you pray -- to see you read the Bible and to see you call upon Scripture for the sustaining of your life. Encourage them to attend ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... they asked, the way they related to each other and the way they related to the group, caused me to know that there was something very special about those six women. I learned little about them, I did learn that they were a part of a women’s prayer group - 12 people - who meet every Thursday morning at 6:00 in a little Methodist church in Conway, South Carolina. Two weeks after I left that conference, I received a letter from one of these women, who, along with her pastor, was extending me an invitation to ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... time you read that passage in the Psalms, know that God is saying to you, shut up now and I’ll tell it like it is. God comes to us in the common events of the day, he also comes to us in those deliberate disciplines of worship, of prayer, of sharing together in fellowship, of studying and service. Our task is to shut up and reflect, that we may ascertain what he is seeking to communicate. Reflection is the practice necessary for deciphering God’s word in the experience that is ours. You can be sure that ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... the solid foundation, the undergirding, the strong rock. Listen, parents -- grandparents, too. If you want to teach your children faith, the best way to do that is to let them see an experience of your own faith. Of course you are to teach them prayer. Teach them special prayers. Help them memorize scripture, but remember it's more important for them to see you pray and to hear you pray -- to see you read the Bible and to see you call upon Scripture for the sustaining of your life. Encourage them to attend ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... . It’s difficult for the small store or the small church to compete. One key reason these mega-churches have grown as they have is that they are not afraid to step out on faith. Their pastors are no more dedicated, their leadership is no more spiritual, their prayers are no more sincere. What they are willing to do is to put wings to their faith by daring great things for God. And God has rewarded their faith. We need to be asking what God needs from us. What unique ministry could we have to our community ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... emphasis on healing and wrote a marvelous book on the healing ministry of the Church. Dr. McPheeters was a great man of prayer, and certainly a person who claimed the ministry of Jesus in the area of healing. One of the greatest lessons Dr. ... grace. Paul is our signal witness to this miracle. You remember “the thorn in the flesh” which, despite Paul’s earnest prayer for that thorn to be removed – it wasn’t – but Paul’s conclusion was, “His grace is sufficient.” However you consider ...
Sermon
Michael Milton
... they were not worried. Have you brought your children to Christ? Are you trusting your little ones to Christ? How do you do that? By prayer, and as we learn in Deuteronomy 6, by living your faith before them in genuine lifestyle ways. We all know it is a dangerous ... salvation. It is the faith of a parent or a loved one that says, I will bring this child to Jesus in baptism, in prayer, as I hold him, as I rear him. The Picture Holds Lessons for Disciples. The disciples did not have a theology of childhood to ...
Sermon
Bill Mosley
... and when he does, things will never be the same. Abraham Lincoln appreciated humor in his life. It was a way of alleviating the burdens of life and eventually the weight of office and the strain and tragedy of the Civil War. He was also a man of prayer. He attended church regularly, though he was not a member, and he once said, "I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction I had nowhere else to go." In his second Inaugural Address he agonized over the war and the relationship of ...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... which to build a church," the missionary bargained. And the deal was made. One never knows what God can do with an out-of-fashion quilt sewn by an 86-year-old widow with arthritic hands and offered to Jesus in faith. Prayers A second loaf we all have in our possession is intercessory prayer. This summer I stood in the nave of St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig, Germany. This was J. S. Bach's old parish. It happens to be where the East German Christians gathered in growing swells to pray for the fall of communism ...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... colony in the northern parts of Virginia...." George Washington, in his first presidential inauguration, added to his oath, "So help me God" and then kissed the Bible. Ben Franklin, in 1778 at the Constitutional Convention, made motion that proceedings each day be opened with prayer. He said, "I have lived for a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that ...
649. Choose Four
Acts 2:14-41
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... manifest, the glory of you." Use this as a mantra throughout the day . . . and see what new spiritual energies don't start circulating in your life. Or here's another "start" I stole from writer Anne Lamott. Lamott has recently added a third prayer to her two favorite daily prayers: in the morning, "Help me, help me, help me." In the evening, at bedtime, "thank you, thank you, thank you." But she recently added a third, to be said many times throughout the day: "Wow!" Jesus is Lord! And all the people said ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... be clunky and awkward. But the foot-washing ritual is one of the most powerful symbols in the Christian tradition. I've been searching for an ‘Ancient Future’ retrieval of this tradition that would be rich in meaning and metaphor. A college chaplain answered my prayer. Here is how you can end this sermon, not so much with words as with actions. Invite forward your Lay Leader, Head Deacon, Mission Chairperson, or someone you wish to pray for that week (e.g. a high school student who should be celebrated ...
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