My older brothers often use words in speech or writing that I have to look up…or pretend I understand until I can find the opportunity to look it up. Their vocabularies far exceed mine. I tell myself that is not because they are more erudite than I am, but because they are much, much older (and so have had many more years to learn all those fancy words)!
There is a benefit to their frequent pedantry, however. It often drives me to the dictionary (albeit sometimes in secret), where I learn new words and their meanings, which then quickly enrich my own conversations and writing.
Something like that has happened over the years in my prayer life. I am far from a scholar, but a handful of Greek words I picked up from studying the Bible have changed my prayers and paid rich dividends in my life:
1) Agapé
“Love” is a many-splendored thing, the song says. But in English, the word “love” can be so broad in meaning that it becomes practically meaningless.
That is why I sometimes pray more specifically for myself and my loved ones to know and practice agapé, the Greek word the New Testament uses to refer to the self-sacrificing, all-encompassing love of God.
Agapé is the word Paul uses to describe “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19, NIV). So I don’t just pray for love in my life and the lives of those around me, I pray for agapé.
2) Charis
Charis is a Greek word that means, “grace,” “favor,” “blessing” or “kindness.” It is the word that gives us the English word “charisma” and is the root of the word “eucharist.”
I sometimes use charis when I pray instead of those words (especially the word “bless,” which I have used so much that it has lost much of its meaning).
I ask God to shower charis on me and those I pray for. I ask for our lives to be “Eucharistic.” I ask for a life of “charisma,” of outflowing, grace-spreading influence to those all around.
Read More: 5 Hebrew Words to Pray
3) Dunamis
When Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus referring to God’s “incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19, NIV), he used a common Greek word, dunamis. It is the word from which sprang our English words, “dynamic” and “dynamite.”
So when I pray for God’s power to be shown in and through and around me, I sometimes pray for dunamis, because the “dunamis” of that word seems more “dynamic” than the oft-used English word, “power.” See what I mean?
4) Poiema
One of my favorite Greek words was used by Paul when he told the Ephesian church that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).
The word, “handiwork,” is a translation of the Greek word, poiema. It is a rich word. It can mean “work of art” or “masterpiece.” The English word “poem” comes from poiema.
So, when I give praise and thanks for God’s work in me or others, or pray for His continued craftsmanship in a life or a situation, I pray for poiema, for His masterful artwork to be shown.
5) Teleios
Another word that expresses far more than any single English word is the Greek word, teleios. It means “complete,” “mature,” or “full grown.” It refers to something (or someone) that is a finished product or well-rounded outcome.
Paul used it (again in the letter to the Ephesians) when he referred to the goal of Christian discipleship, “that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature [teleios], attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13, NIV).
So I will sometimes pray to get closer to teleios in my life and for that “completeness” and conformity to the likeness of Christ to be shown in the lives of those around me.
Just five words, like the five Hebrew words I shared in a previous post, adds depth and breadth to how I pray. In fact, I can say that each word has changed and deepened how I pray, for myself and for others. I would love it if it does something similar for you.
