Vocabulary of Prayer: 20 words

Prayer is speaking with God. It is not a performance and it is not a technique for forcing a result. In the Christian sense, prayer is a child addressing the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the help of the Spirit. It includes praise, confession, thanksgiving, request, and intercession. It can be a sentence. It can be a silence that still faces God. What makes it prayer is the address, not the length. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, not as a public show, but as a private conversation that shapes the heart before it shapes the day. Scripture is full of this address. In the King James Bible, the words pray, prayer, and prayed appear more than three hundred and seventy times. Related words — intercession, supplication, cry — add many more. Prayer is not a side theme. It is one of the ordinary acts of the people of God, from Abraham’s conversation with the Lord to the Psalms of David, from Jesus in Gethsemane to the church in Acts that continued in prayer. The Bible does not treat prayer as optional. It treats it as the normal speech of those who know God. Here are twenty French words for that vocabulary. Each comes with one sentence you can say. Learn the word, then say the sentence out loud. The goal is not to collect vocabulary. The goal is to have words ready when you speak to God and when you teach someone else to speak to him. 1. Père. Père, je viens à toi comme un enfant. 2. Seigneur. Seigneur, tu règnes sur ce jour avant que je le commence. 3. Invoquer. J’invoque ton nom avant d’ouvrir cette porte. 4. Louange. Ma louange n’attend pas la réponse. 5. Adoration. Je t’adore pour qui tu es, pas seulement pour ce que tu donnes. 6. Merci. Merci pour ce qui est déjà là. 7. Action de grâces. Je fais monter une action de grâces avant ma liste. 8. Demander. Je te demande du pain pour aujourd’hui. 9. Supplier. Je te supplie pour cet enfant. 10. Confesser. Je confesse que j’ai parlé trop vite. 11. Pardon. Pardon pour la colère gardée hier soir. 12. Miséricorde. Ta miséricorde est plus large que ma faute. 13. Grâce. Je reçois cette journée par grâce. 14. Intercéder. J’intercède pour ceux qui n’ont plus la force de prier. 15. Veiller. Je veille en prière pendant qu’un autre dort. 16. Confiance. Ma confiance est un appui, pas une humeur. 17. Abandon. Je t’abandonne l’issue de cette affaire. 18. Persévérer. Je persévère dans la même prière. 19. Silence. Je garde le silence assez longtemps pour t’entendre. 20. Amen. Amen. Ce que tu as dit tient. You do not need all twenty tomorrow morning. Take three. Name God. Thank him. Carry one person. When the words become familiar in French, they become tools for evangelism. A learner hears the language. A hearer meets the God who is addressed. A free course of five videos on this vocabulary will be sent by email. The link will be placed here when the course is ready.