Prayer is often seen as reciting a prayer, as is done, for example, by praying a form prayer before eating. But the Bible understands prayer as not just speaking to God, but has a much broader meaning. We might call that a prayerful attitude, but that too would need to be explained.
Whoever prays addresses God and thereby acknowledges that He is God. Whoever prays indicates that he does not expect it from himself, but from Him. That is not only in words, but also in deed, in attitude.
be well aimed
One of the biggest eye-openers on this subject for me was studying the word translated as prayer in the New Testament, the Greek pros-euchomai (G4336). This word is made up of three Greek words: pros = to go, eu = good, well, and echomen = to have.
The word pros indicates a focus. We find it, for example, in John 1:1 where it literally says:
In the beginning was the word and the word was towards (=directed towards) God and God was the word.
When God speaks, it points us to Him, to who He is. His word speaks of Him. Hence: the word was directed towards God.
good
The second part of the word pros-euchomai, namely eu, we know for example from the word eu-aggelion = gospel and that means: good news. The last part of the word, echomen, means to have and, like the Dutch word to have (>hebben), occurs in many situations. There is often little to no difference between having and being. The Scripture speaks of having a husband, which is being married (John 4:17), having diseases, which is being sick (Acts 28:9), having fifty years, which is being fifty years old (John. 8:57), etc.
If we put the separate parts of the word pros-euchomai together, it literally means: towards-having good, or: orientation-having good.
Praying therefore means: having a good focus, having your direction right. That is not just saying a prayer, because that is at most the result of it. It is an attitude of the creature that recognizes his Creator and expects it from Him in everything.
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