Open Your Soul With One-Word Prayer

My previous articles about one-word prayer suggest Christian mantras to open your soul to God. Here are a few more in the languages of Jesus:

Open Your Soul with One-Word Prayer

One-word prayers can open your soul to God like no other kind of prayer. In the first article of this series, “How to Pray a One-Word Prayer,” I wrote, “I’m convinced that we tend to talk too much when we pray. Prayer is better when we let our words be few—when we simply sit in God’s presence and listen to what the Spirit has to say to us. When we do use words, sometimes it’s best to stick to just one word.”

In that article, I suggested praying the word “Abba” or “Amma” to connect with God as the divine Parent. I offered the words “Hallelujah,” “Hosanna,” “Koum,” and “Selah” in the second article of this series, “Worship God with One-Word Prayer.” I hope you’ll check out those postings for backstory. Here are four more one-word prayers to open your soul to God.

“Amen”

Amen is a word that transcends linguistic barriers. Found in its various forms in ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, it has also made its way into modern languages such as Arabic, Spanish, and English. This word has been translated as “verily” or “truly,” and often indicates agreement in phrases such as “Amen to that!”

This word has been used for thousands of years as the concluding word of prayers. Its meaning, “Let it be,” or “So be it” is a prayer of resignation to God’s will. “Amen” says, “I have just prayed my heart out to your, Lord, asking you for the things that I think are best. But in the end, I recognize that it’s Your will that matters and not mine. So, I rest myself in Your perfect wisdom and will.”

Jesus prayed something like this when He said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42).” He also taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).”

The next time you pray, try to think of amen not as the word that you tack onto the end of your prayer–as if it means, “Ok, I’m done. I’m hanging up the phone now, Lord.” Try to actually pray your amen with meaning. Maybe you’d like to sit and repeat amen until it finally sinks in, reinforcing your attitude of submission to God’s will. Or you could let amen be the entire prayer. In Revelation 5:14, the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” It was a whole prayer. What could be simpler–what could be better to repeat?

“Eloi”

Jesus used this name for God in Matthew 27:46. Hanging from the cross, he cried out in Aramaic, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This word simply means, “My God,” but the context in which we find it indicates a sense of separation from God—very different from Jesus’ tender relationship with his Abba.

Praying this word is an indication that for one reason or another, you feel lost and hopeless, unable to feel God’s presence. This is a one-word prayer of lament. Sometimes, when you’re feeling abandoned and forsaken, one word is all you can muster. Maybe that’s all you need.

“Ephphatha”

When Jesus used this Aramaic word in Mark 7:34, He was healing a man who was deaf and mute. Jesus took the man aside by himself, away from the crowd. He put his fingers in the man’s ears, spat on his fingers, put them in the man’s ears, spat, and touched the man’s tongue. Looking up to heaven, he signed deeply and said, “Ephphatha!” (That is, “Be opened!”).

This secret wet-willy ceremony is lost on the modern reader. It’s difficult to explain the symbolism of what appeared, by all accounts, to be a magical act worked by the Master. The very word itself, “Ephphatha” sounds the rush of wind that might have entered the man’s ears as the first sound he ever heard.

When you pray, “Ephphatha,” you are asking God to open you up, just as He opened this deaf man’s ears and speech. Maybe your love feels stopped up. Or maybe your compassion has been sealed off. Or forgiveness is bottled up inside you, but you just can’t release it. Do you have something in your spirit that needs to be opened? Why not try this one-word prayer of Jesus: “Ephphatha.” Keep on praying it, and see what stuck thing begins to shake loose in your life.

“Lama”

Along with “Eloi,” this word is found in Matthew 27:46. As Jesus hangs on the cross, He cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This word, “lama” simply means “Why?”

I have met a lot of people who said, “You’re not supposed to question God.” Well, Jesus did it. Wracked with pain and grief, He wanted to know why. Sometimes, in the most difficult of circumstances, our hearts cry out with just one word—”Why?”

Praying this one-word prayer is a recognition that you don’t have all the answers. It is a request to the All-Knowing One for some understanding. It is not a challenge, like a child who stamps her foot, crosses her arms, and demands to know why. Instead, it is a sincere question with a hopeful heart. Maybe you’re having a tough time understanding why God is doing something, and you’d like to know why. Pray this one-word prayer–and maybe God will tell you.

Hearing from God Through Repetition

In “Is Repetitive Prayer a Sin?” I wrote, “This is Christian mantra meditation – the repetition of scripture, combined with deep breathing. By engaging in such meditation and prayer, I don’t hope that God will hear me more. Instead, I hope that I will hear from God more.” It’s my prayer that as you practice one-word prayer, you’ll be able to hear from God more by attuning yourself to the divine presence. In so doing, you’ll be able to (in the words of my seminary professor E Glenn Hinson), “open yourself like a flower to the morning sun.”