I have a confession. Growing up, it seemed the preachers always used at least one Hebrew or Greek word in every sermon to help clarify or explain the biblical text. This was good. It was helpful. I appreciated it. But I also assumed if I didn\u2019t understand a word or phrase in the worship service, it must be Hebrew or Greek. So, my youthful observation led me to assume the word \u201cAmen\u201d was either Hebrew or Greek for \u201cSit down.\u201d Every time someone ended a prayer with the word \u201cAmen\u201d we all sat down. It made sense. As I grew older and wiser, I understood the \u201cAmen\u201d was not a command to be seated, but rather a concluding thought to the prayer, meaning, \u201cSo be it.\u201d However, the word came to mean \u201cOver and out\u201d or \u201cSigning off here\u201d or just \u201cGood bye for now\u201d and I understood why it was used in public prayer \u2013 to indicate the prayer was concluded, and it was indeed time to be seated. But why use the word in private prayer? No one else needed to know the one praying in private was finished with the prayer. Why not leave the prayer open-ended? Maybe God wasn\u2019t finished. After all, prayer is two-way communication isn\u2019t it? How about employing a time of silence before ending your private prayer? Listen for God. The Psalmist ended a prayer with the words, \u201cTruly my soul silently waits for God . . . wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him\u201d (Psalm 62:1, 5). As the Psalmist waited in silence, two thoughts came to him. \u201cGod has spoken . . . power belongs to God\u201d (Psalm 62:11) and that God would \u201crender to each one according to his work\u201d (Psalm 62:12). Although the Psalmist was disturbed by his circumstances to the point of prayer, he found comfort as he stopped talking to God and started listening to God. So next time you pray in private, don\u2019t say \u201cAmen.\u201d Listen and let God conclude your prayer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a confession. Growing up, it seemed the preachers always used at least one Hebrew or Greek word in every sermon to help clarify or explain the biblical text. This was good. It was helpful. I appreciated it. But I also assumed if I didn\u2019t understand a word or phrase in the worship service,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}