Colossians 4:12 NLT
I read dictionaries. I know, I'm a little strange...okay, a LOT strange, but I love words. Of course, if you've been a Promise follower for very long, you already know that. I like doing word studies with period dictionaries because words don't mean the same as they used to. Have they changed that much? Yes! They certainly have!
Just in today's vernacular - Sick used to mean please pray and call a doctor. Bad used to mean NOT good and involved some kind of correction/punishment, etc. Skinny used to mean the opposite of fat, but now that's spelled PHAT and is another "word" for 'all that' (which is always accompanied by a certain tone and look), and skinny is also a euphemism for information that is not common knowledge about a particular person, place or thing (better known as gossip) depending on what book you use. Are you confused yet?
In the King James Version of the Bible, our text today reads Epaphras is always labouring fervently for you in prayers. Fervently comes from the Greek word energeo, meaning to be at work, put forth power. Do we even associate praying with labor, let alone laboring fervently? So laboring to put forth power for you in prayers...Wow! Any questions about the meaning of this? And are we doing it?
Prayer:
Father,
Strip away the fluff and the stuff and the puffs of hot air that we interpret as prayer. Give our hearts an extreme makeover so that we understand the meaning of fervent prayer and enter into it for one another. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
I read dictionaries. I know, I'm a little strange...okay, a LOT strange, but I love words. Of course, if you've been a Promise follower for very long, you already know that. I like doing word studies with period dictionaries because words don't mean the same as they used to. Have they changed that much? Yes! They certainly have!
Just in today's vernacular - Sick used to mean please pray and call a doctor. Bad used to mean NOT good and involved some kind of correction/punishment, etc. Skinny used to mean the opposite of fat, but now that's spelled PHAT and is another "word" for 'all that' (which is always accompanied by a certain tone and look), and skinny is also a euphemism for information that is not common knowledge about a particular person, place or thing (better known as gossip) depending on what book you use. Are you confused yet?
In the King James Version of the Bible, our text today reads Epaphras is always labouring fervently for you in prayers. Fervently comes from the Greek word energeo, meaning to be at work, put forth power. Do we even associate praying with labor, let alone laboring fervently? So laboring to put forth power for you in prayers...Wow! Any questions about the meaning of this? And are we doing it?
Prayer:
Father,
Strip away the fluff and the stuff and the puffs of hot air that we interpret as prayer. Give our hearts an extreme makeover so that we understand the meaning of fervent prayer and enter into it for one another. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
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