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This week, we’re in Practice #3: Grow in Prayer. If you can, give yourself 15 minutes to just be with God. Set a timer and put everything else away except for you, your Bible, and the device you’re reading this on.

Today and for the next two days, we’ll research the six Greek verbs used in the New Testament to describe prayer. Start by visiting this webpage and reading the first two entries which include the words “Ask (154) (aiteo)” and “Beg (1189) (deomai)” Write down what you learn.

The words you likely listed carry with them 

1. a sense of heightened emotion (“begging” or “pleading”)
2. a relationship to time that seems to view it as being too short (“urgently ask”)

Evaluate your own prayer life. Does it involve heightened emotion and a sense that time is running out? Why or why not?

Now let’s read from the NET (New English Translation):

Luke 5:12-13

“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing. Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”

With these verses in mind, start to pray. Have an honest conversation with God about the things that you’ve been afraid to bring to him, maybe out of fear that they were too vulnerable or you looked too desperate or God didn’t care enough. 

Try to imagine yourself as the man in this story. What is going on (in your life or in someone else’s around you) that puts you in that kind of position? Bow down to God in your heart. Beg Him! “God, will you please ____________________?”

If you can, physically position yourself lower. Kneel or bow down. Spend time asking God for what you need, for what seems impossible, for what is breaking your heart, for what is breaking His heart. Don’t worry about formulas or words. Just pray.