The time has come to start working on the next Ladies' study. I've decided to study "Prayer from Paul's POV". [I'll come up with a catchier title later. Suggestions?] After translating Rom.1:8-12 and making a beauteous chart, I spent time making observations. The first thing I noticed is how many Present Tense verbs Paul uses in this passage. That's significant!
[As a reminder... Greek Verbs tell not only the TIME of the action, but also the KIND of the action. While there are some other specific uses of the Greek Present Tense, generally it denotes progressive action, which can be either on-going, repetitive or continuous.]
Here are some examples from this passage:
1:8a "...I am thanking my God ..."
1:8b "...your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world."
1:9a "...God...whom I am serving..."
1:9b "...I am making a mention of you"
1:10 "...always...making request/beseeching/imploring/begging
1:11 "...I am longing to see you..."
I worded it so that you could appreciate the "Present tenseness" of these verbs. When Bible writers talk about the Christian life, the Present Tense verbs start jumping out all over the place. That's because faith in the heart affects the outer actions... continuously, progressively. "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is." You don't "thank God" once, or even every once in a while. A heart of faith is thanking God continuously, progressively. It's a "lifestyle" attribute.
Read over this passage a few times and spend some time thinking about the significance of these verbs being in the Greek Present Tense. Then ask yourself if this is personally true in your life.
2 comments:
Instead of "Prayer from Paul's POV", perhaps you should incorporate some catchy phrases that help others sell their stuff like crazy.
Have you considered:
Velvet Paul
The Purpose-Driven Prayer
Becoming a Better You, according to Paul
Taming the Wild Prayer
Sex Prayer
Any of these should do. If not, show video clips from Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City. It works wonders for many churches (from a human point of view.)
Actually content is my thing,as you well know. But I am notorious for boring titles. C'mon..."From Scripture to Implication"? Maybe a LITTLE creativity would be nice. Hey... Pastor Wragg came up with "Sin is So Stupid". See how I remembered?
["Purpose-Driven Prayer"...gag...]
Deb
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