Prayer in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(1) Techinnah, from chandra "to be gracious"; hithpael, "to entreat grace"; Greek deesis. (2) Tephillah, from hithpael of paalal, "to seek judgment"; Greek proseuchee. "Prayer," proseuchee, for obtaining blessings, implying devotion; "supplication," deesis, for averting evil. "Prayer" the general term; "supplication" with imploring earnestness (implying the suppliant's sense of need); enteuxis, intercession for others, coming near to God, seeking an audience in person, generally in another's behalf. Thanksgiving should always go with prayer (1 Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 6:18; Philemon 4:6). An instinct of every nation, even pagan (Isaiah 16:12; Isaiah 44:17; Isaiah 45:20; 1 Kings 18:26). In Seth's days, when Enos (frailty) was born to him, "men began to call upon the name of Jehovah." The name Enos embodies the Sethites' sense of human frailty urging them to prayer, in contrast to the Cainites' self sufficient "pride of countenance" which keeps sinners from seeking God (Psalm 10:4). While the Cainites by building a city and inventing arts were founding the kingdom of this world, the Sethites by united calling upon Jehovah constituted the first church, and laid the foundation of the kingdom of God. The name of God is His whole self manifestation in relation to man. On this revealed divine character of grace and power believers fasten their prayers (Psalm 119:49; Proverbs 18:10). The sceptic's objections to prayer are: (1) The immutability of nature's general laws. But nature is only another name for the will of God; that will provides for answers to prayer in harmony with the general scheme of His government of the world. There are higher laws than those observed in the material world; the latter are subordinate to the former. (2) God's predestinating power, wisdom and love make prayer useless and needless. But man is made a free moral agent; and God who predestines the blessing predestines prayer as the means to that end (Matthew 24:20). Prayer produces and strengthens in the mind conscious dependence on God, faith, and love, the state for receiving and appreciating God's blessing ordained in answer to prayer. Moreover prayer does not supersede work; praying and working are complementary of each other (Nehemiah 4:9). Our weakness drives us to cast ourselves on God's fatherly love, providence, and power. Our cf6 "Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him"; "we know not what things we should pray for as we ought" (Matthew 6:8; Romans 8:26). Yet "the Spirit helpeth our infirmities," and Jesus teaches us by the Lord's prayer how to pray (Luke 11). Nor is the blessing merely subjective; but we may pray for particular blessings, temporal and spiritual, in submission to God's will, for ourselves. cf6 "Thy will be done," (Matthew 6:10) and "if we ask anything according to His will" (1 John 5:14-15), is the limitation. Every truly believing prayer contains this limitation. God then grants either the petition or something better than it, so that no true prayer is lost (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Luke 22:42; Hebrews 5:7). Also "intercessions" for others (the effect of which cannot be merely subjective) are enjoined (1 Timothy 2:1). God promises blessings in answer to prayer, as the indispensable condition of the gift (Matthew 7:7-8). Examples confirm the command to pray. None prayed so often as Jesus; early in the morning "a great while before day" (Mark 1:35), "all the night" (Luke 6:12), in Gethsemane with an "agony" that drew from Him "sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44); "when He was being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened" (Luke 3:21); "as He prayed" He was transfigured (Luke 9:29); "as He was praying in a certain place" (Luke 11:1) one disciple struck by His prayer said, "Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1) (an interesting fact here only recorded). Above all, the intercession in John 17, His beginning of advocacy with the Father for us; an example of the highest and holiest spiritual communion. The Holy Spirit in believers "maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." "He that...