Prayerfulness
Prayerfulness is the settled disposition of one whose first instinct in need, gratitude, fear, and ordinary life is to address God. Across the UPDV the picture is not of episodic crisis-prayer alone but of a life oriented toward Yahweh in the morning and in the night, in the assembly and in private chambers, with bended knee and lifted hands, in brief exclamations and in long-formed petition. Daniel kneels three times a day toward Jerusalem; David orders his prayer at dawn; the widow at the temple continues in supplications night and day; the apostle prays without ceasing for the churches he has never seen. The umbrella is about a habit of life, not a technique.
A Life Oriented in Prayer
The Psalter sets the pattern of a life ordered around address to God. "Give ear to my words, O Yahweh, consider my meditation. Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray. O Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice; In the morning I will order [my prayer] to you, and will keep watch" (Ps 5:1-3). The day-and-night cycle is explicit: "[Yet] Yahweh will command his loving-kindness in the daytime; And in the night his song will be with me, [Even] a prayer to the God of my life" (Ps 42:8). When opposition rises, the response is not retaliation but address: "In return for my love they are my adversaries: But I [give myself to] prayer" (Ps 109:4). And the rationale is gratitude for being heard: "Because he has inclined his ear to me, Therefore I will call [on him] as long as I live" (Ps 116:2).
The point of these texts in series is that prayer is not reserved for emergencies. It is the soul's running response to God across the whole day, against the whole life, in love and in adversity alike. "O you who hear prayer, To you will all flesh come" (Ps 65:2).
The Habit Set Three Times a Day
The clearest portrait of the prayerful person is Daniel under threat of death: "And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he knelt on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did previously" (Da 6:10). The phrase "as he did previously" is the umbrella's anchor. The habit antedates the crisis; the crisis only exposes it. Daniel's prayerfulness is regular ("three times a day"), bodily ("knelt on his knees"), oriented ("toward Jerusalem"), and grateful ("gave thanks"). When deliverance comes, it comes through a prayer already spoken: "Don't be afraid, Daniel; for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard" (Da 10:12).
The widow paradigm in the Pastoral Epistles maps the same disposition onto the church: "Now she who is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day" (1Ti 5:5).
"Pray Without Ceasing"
The apostolic writings press prayer into a continuous mode. Paul's shortest version is a flat command: "pray without ceasing" (1Th 5:17). The fuller form fills out the texture of that command: "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your⁺ requests be made known to God" (Php 4:6); "Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving" (Col 4:2); "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer" (Ro 12:12); "with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Ep 6:18).
The same writers describe their own practice in the same terms. "We give thanks to God always for all of you⁺, making mention [of you⁺] in our prayers without ceasing" (1Th 1:2). "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the good news of his Son, how I unceasingly remember you⁺" (Ro 1:9). "We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you⁺" (Cl 1:3). "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience, how unceasing is my remembrance of you in my supplications, night and day" (2Ti 1:3). "Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your⁺ face" (1Th 3:10). "Do not cease to give thanks for you⁺, making mention [of you⁺] in my prayers" (Eph 1:16; cf. Eph 1:15). "We also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray and make request for you⁺" (Col 1:9).
What "without ceasing" means in practice is shown in Epaphras: "always striving for you⁺ in his prayers, that you⁺ may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God" (Cl 4:12). The unceasing-ness is sustained intercession, not literal silence-broken speech. It is a habit of holding others before God across time.
The Postures of Prayer
The habit takes the body with it. The UPDV shows a wide and consistent range of postures, none of them prescribed against the others, all of them expressive of the inner disposition.
Kneeling. Solomon, after dedicating the temple, "arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven" (1Ki 8:54); 2 Chronicles records the same scene from the bronze scaffold (2Ch 6:13). Ezra "fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God" (Ezr 9:5). Daniel "knelt on his knees three times a day" (Da 6:10). The Psalter calls the assembly to the posture: "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker" (Ps 95:6). Paul writes, "For this cause I bow my knees to the Father" (Eph 3:14). The eschatological horizon is the same: "[By my Speech] I have sworn ... that to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear" (Is 45:23). Jesus himself prays kneeling in Gethsemane: "And he was parted from them about a stone's cast; and he knelt down and prayed" (Lu 22:41).
Standing. "Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven" (1Ki 8:22). "And whenever you⁺ stand praying, forgive, if you⁺ have anything against anyone" (Mr 11:25). The tax-collector "standing far off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Lu 18:13).
Bowing and falling on the face. "And the people believed [in the Speech of Yahweh] ... then they bowed their heads and worshiped" (Ex 4:31; cf. Ex 12:27; Ex 34:8; Ge 24:26). On Carmel, Elijah "bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees" (1Ki 18:42). Joshua "fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped" (Jos 5:14). Moses and Aaron "fell on their faces" at the tent of meeting (Nu 20:6). Jehoshaphat "bowed his head with his face to the ground; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before Yahweh, worshiping Yahweh" (2Ch 20:18).
Lifted hands. A whole strand of texts gathers this posture together. "I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing" (1Ti 2:8). "Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry to you, When I lift up my hands toward your holy oracle" (Ps 28:2). "So I will bless you while I live: I will lift up my hands in [the name of your Speech]" (Ps 63:4). "Lift up your⁺ hands to the sanctuary, And bless⁺ Yahweh" (Ps 134:2). "May my prayer be placed as incense before you; The lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Ps 141:2). "I spread forth my hands to you: My soul [thirsts] after you, as a weary land. Selah" (Ps 143:6). Lamentations joins night and posture: "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the soul of your young children" (La 2:19). Sirach echoes the same gesture: "So they called to God Most High, And spread forth their hands to him, And he heard the voice of their prayer, And saved them by the hand of Isaiah" (Sir 48:20).
The postures are not equivalences of merit. They are the body participating in what the heart is doing.
Brevity and Length
The UPDV tradition refuses to choose between short prayers and long ones. Brevity is enjoined where the heart is rash: "Don't be rash with your mouth, and don't let your heart be in a hurry to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you are on earth: therefore let your words be few" (Ec 5:2). Sirach concurs in spirit: "O that one would set a watch over my mouth, And a seal of shrewdness upon my lips, That I do not fall by means of them, And that my tongue does not destroy me" (Sir 22:27).
Yet Solomon's temple prayer is sustained discourse (1Ki 8:22-61); David sits before Yahweh and pours out a long meditation (2Sa 7:18-29); Hezekiah spreads Sennacherib's letter and prays at length before Yahweh (2Ki 19:15-19); Daniel's confession runs through a full chapter (Da 9:4-19); the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus fills John 17 (Jn 17:1-26). Brief prayers stand alongside them and are no less heard. Jabez's single sentence "And God granted him that which he requested" (1Ch 4:10). Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays in two verses (Is 38:2-3). The publican has seven words: "God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Lu 18:13). Elijah on Carmel asks twice: "Hear me, O Yahweh, hear me" (1Ki 18:36-37), and "Then the fire of Yahweh fell" (1Ki 18:38).
The length scales to the moment, not to a formula. What is constant is the orientation toward God.
The Lord's Prayer and Its Frame
When the disciples ask, the answer is given as a model: "When you⁺ pray, say, Father, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation" (Lu 11:2-4). The shape is fatherhood, name, kingdom, daily bread, forgiveness conditioned on forgiving, deliverance from temptation.
Around this model Luke 11 sets two pillars. The first is the parable of the friend at midnight, framing prayerfulness as importunity: "Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needs" (Lu 11:8). The second is the bare promise: "Ask, and it will be given you⁺; seek, and you⁺ will find; knock, and it will be opened to you⁺. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Lu 11:9-10).
Read together, the Lord's Prayer is not a script for occasional use but the grammar of a continuous asking.
Importunity: The Persistent Asker
The umbrella's most distinctive note in the Synoptic tradition is persistence. Luke 18 puts it as a parable: "And he spoke a parable to them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, who didn't fear God, and didn't regard man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came often to him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for awhile: but after these things he said to himself, Though I don't fear God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. ... And will not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night, and [yet] he is long-suffering over them?" (Lu 18:1-7). The closing question — "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Lu 18:8) — makes prayerful persistence the test of faith at the end.
The OT supplies the bodies: Abraham bargains for Sodom from fifty down to ten ("Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once," Ge 18:32); Jacob wrestles all night ("I will not let you go, except you bless me," Ge 32:26); Moses falls before Yahweh "forty days and forty nights" (De 9:18, 9:25); Samuel cries to Yahweh "all night" (1Sa 15:11). James reads Elijah this way: "Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months" (Jas 5:16-17). Even Jesus' own Gethsemane is filed under this subtopic: "And he was in great distress, and was praying urgently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling upon the ground" (Lu 22:44).
The nobleman in John 4 will not be put off ("Sir, come down before my child dies," Jn 4:49) — and John gathers the same impulse around Jesus: people implore him for a fevered mother (Lu 4:38), a demonized son (Lu 9:38), a deaf man (Mr 7:32). Persistence is shown to belong both to prayer toward God and to those bringing others to Christ.
Secret Prayer and Private Devotion
A whole register of the umbrella is hidden. Elijah carries the widow's son alone "into the chamber, where he dwelt, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to Yahweh" (1Ki 17:19-20). Samuel, alone with grief, "cried to Yahweh all night" (1Sa 15:11). Moses, in isolation before Yahweh, falls down "the forty days and forty nights" (De 9:25). Daniel prays in his own house, windows open toward Jerusalem, three times a day, in a privacy that becomes public only when his enemies seek the charge (Da 6:10).
The Gospels show this register most insistently in Jesus. "But he withdrew himself in the deserts, and prayed" (Lu 5:16). "And it came to pass in these days, that he went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God" (Lu 6:12). "And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed" (Mr 1:35). "And after he had taken leave of them, he departed into the mountain to pray" (Mr 6:46). "And it came to pass, as he was praying apart, the disciples were with him" (Lu 9:18). Public prayer, like John 11:41 ("Father, I thank you that you heard me") or John 17, is the visible portion of a practice rooted in long, hidden devotion.
Public and Corporate Prayer
The umbrella also takes corporate form. Solomon prays before "all the assembly of Israel" (1Ki 8:22). The temple itself is named: "my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Is 56:7). At Jesus' baptism it is the people's praying that frames the heaven's opening: "that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened" (Lu 3:21). The Maccabean tradition gathers this corporate note sharply. The army assembles "that they might pray, and ask mercy and compassion" (1Ma 3:44). The site itself is spoken of as a former house of prayer: "in Maspha was a place of prayer heretofore in Israel" (1Ma 3:46). The cry is collective and loud: "And they cried with a loud voice toward heaven, saying: What shall we do with these, And where shall we carry them? ... How shall we be able to stand before their face, Unless you help us?" (1Ma 3:50-53). The temple is named again: "You, O Lord, have chosen this house for your name to be called on in it, that it might be a house of prayer and supplication for your people" (1Ma 7:37). And before battle: "they sounded their trumpets, and cried out in prayer" (1Ma 5:33); "Now therefore cry⁺ to heaven, that you⁺ may be delivered from the hand of our enemies. And they joined battle" (1Ma 9:46).
The Apocalypse images this as worship liturgy: "the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Re 5:8). And again: "another angel ... having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand" (Re 8:3-4). Corporate prayerfulness is, in the heavenly vision, a material thing — incense ascending.
Intercession: Prayer for Others
Prayerfulness is rarely solitary in concern. Scripture's record of intercession gathers the long line of those who stand in the breach for others. Abraham asks for Sodom, sliding the threshold from fifty to ten (Ge 18:23-32). Moses returns to Yahweh after the calf and asks to be blotted out himself rather than have the people destroyed: "blot me, I pray you, out of your book which you have written" (Ex 32:31-32; cf. De 9:26). Numbers preserves the briefest of intercessions: "And Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, Heal her, O God, I urge you" (Nu 12:13). Samuel says, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you⁺ to Yahweh" (1Sa 7:5). David offers his own house in place of the people: "Let your hand, I pray you, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people" (1Ch 21:17). Hezekiah prays for Passover-keepers who have not cleansed themselves: "The good Yahweh pardon everyone" (2Ch 30:18). Job is restored when he "prayed for his companions" (Job 42:10). The Psalter lifts up Moses standing "in the breach, To turn away his wrath" (Ps 106:23). Paul intercedes for Onesimus (Phm 1:10) and asks the same in return: "Brothers, pray also for us" (1Th 5:25; cf. 2Th 3:1; He 13:18; Ro 15:30; Ep 6:19).
Christ himself is the last and largest intercessor. "He ever lives to make intercession for them" (He 7:25). "He poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for their sins" (Is 53:12). "I will pray the Father, and he will give you⁺ another Supporter, that he may be with you⁺ forever" (Jn 14:16). "But I made supplication for you, that your faith does not fail" (Lu 22:32). "I pray for them: I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me" (Jn 17:9; cf. Jn 17:20). "It is Christ Jesus who died, and what's more, who was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" (Ro 8:34).
The Spirit closes the circuit on the human side: "And in like manner the Spirit also helps our infirmity: for we don't know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for [us] with groanings which can't be uttered; and he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to [the will of] God" (Ro 8:26-27). Prayerfulness, on this account, is not raw human exertion. It is human address sustained by the Son's intercession at the right hand and the Spirit's intercession from within.
Prayer for Enemies
The material gathered under prayer for enemies is small in the UPDV. Luke 23:34a is excluded textually ("UPDV excludes the 'Father, forgive them' saying at Luke 23:34a; no UPDV text available for this saying"). What remains, on the imprecatory side, is the Maccabean cry over a blasphemer: "Be avenged of this man, and his army, and let them fall by the sword: remember their blasphemies, and do not give them a dwelling place" (1Ma 7:38). The umbrella does not, on the texts in hand, force a single doctrine of how to pray for enemies. The wider material on prayer (intercession for the unworthy, prayer that hands judgment to God rather than self) frames it without resolving it.
What Makes Prayer Heard
Prayerfulness is not, on the UPDV's account, a guarantee of being heard. The texts are insistent that some prayers are not answered, and they specify the conditions under which prayer reaches God.
True prayer is heard. "Yahweh is far from the wicked; But he hears the prayer of the righteous" (Pr 15:29). "[The righteous] cried, and Yahweh heard, And delivered them out of all their troubles" (Ps 34:17). "In my distress I called on Yahweh, And cried to my God: He heard my voice out of his temple" (Ps 18:6). "But know that Yahweh has set apart for himself him who is godly: Yahweh will hear when I call to him" (Ps 4:3). "But as for me, I will look to [the Speech of] Yahweh; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me" (Mi 7:7). "He will not respect the person of the poor, But hearkens to the supplications of the distressed" (Sir 35:16); "He does not ignore the cry of the orphan, Nor the widow when she pours out her complaint" (Sir 35:17); "The cry of the poor passes through the clouds, And until it reaches [God] it does not rest; It will not cease until God visits" (Sir 35:21).
Promises of answer. "Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don't know" (Je 33:3). "And it will come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Is 65:24). "He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him, and honor him" (Ps 91:15). "Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry, and he will say, Here I am" (Is 58:9). "He who honors [his] father will rejoice under [his] sons, And in the day of his prayer he will be listened to" (Sir 3:5). "Supplication from the mouth of a poor man [reaches] to the ears of the Lord, And his vindication comes quickly" (Sir 21:5).
Conditions for being heard. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2Ch 7:14). "And you⁺ will seek me, and find me, when you⁺ will search for me with all your⁺ heart" (Je 29:13). "And whatever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight" (1Jn 3:22). "And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (1Jn 5:14). "All things that you⁺ pray and ask for, believe that you⁺ receive them, and you⁺ will have them" (Mr 11:24). "Confess therefore your⁺ sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you⁺ may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man avails much in its working" (Jas 5:16). "Forgive an injury [done to you] by your neighbor, And then, when you pray, your sins will be forgiven" (Sir 28:2). "And whenever you⁺ stand praying, forgive, if you⁺ have anything against anyone; that your⁺ Father also who is in heaven may forgive you⁺ your⁺ trespasses" (Mr 11:25). And in Jesus' name: "Whatever you⁺ will ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (Jn 14:13; cf. Jn 14:14, Jn 15:7, Jn 16:24).
Causes of failure. Iniquity entertained: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear" (Ps 66:18); "your⁺ iniquities have separated between you⁺ and your⁺ God, and your⁺ sins have hid his face from you⁺, so that he will not hear" (Is 59:2). Bloody hands: "when you⁺ make many prayers, I will not hear: your⁺ hands are full of blood" (Is 1:15). Unhearing of the law: "He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is disgusting" (Pr 28:9). Unhearing of the poor: "Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, He also will cry, but will not be heard" (Pr 21:13). Doubt: "let him ask in faith, doubting nothing: for he who doubts is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For do not let that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord" (Jas 1:6-7). Wrong motive: "You⁺ ask, and don't receive, because you⁺ ask amiss, that you⁺ may spend [it] in your⁺ pleasures" (Jas 4:3). Prior refusal to listen: "as he cried out, and they would not hear, so they will cry out, and I will not hear" (Zec 7:13). The hardened heart: "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer" (Pr 1:28). Inconsistent life: "One praying, and another cursing, To whose voice will the Master listen?" (Sir 34:29); "So a man fasting for his sins, And going again and doing the same, Who will hearken to his prayer?" (Sir 34:31).
Sometimes refused even when righteous. "Concerning this thing I implored the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me" (2Co 12:8). "Yahweh was furious with me for your⁺ sakes, and didn't listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter" (De 3:26). David fasts and lies on the earth all night for the child, and the child dies (2Sa 12:16). The umbrella does not collapse prayerfulness into a transaction.
Unwise prayers. Some prayers, recorded faithfully, are unwise. Elijah under the juniper-tree asks to die (1Ki 19:4). Moses, near breaking under the burden of the people, asks the same (Nu 11:15). Jonah, sulking, asks the same (Jon 4:3). The umbrella does not sanitize the record.
Watchfulness as Prayer
Prayerfulness and watchfulness travel together in the UPDV. The morning psalm pairs them ("In the morning I will order [my prayer] to you, and will keep watch," Ps 5:3). The Pauline imperative pairs them: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving" (Cl 4:2); "with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Ep 6:18). The eschatological context sharpens the pairing: "But watch⁺ at every season, making supplication, that you⁺ may prevail to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Lu 21:36).
The watching is set against sin and against drift. "Be sober, be watchful: your⁺ adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour" (1Pe 5:8). "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1Co 10:12). "Watch⁺, stand fast⁺ in the faith, be⁺ manly, be⁺ strong" (1Co 16:13). "I said, I will take heed to my ways, That I don't sin with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle" (Ps 39:1). And the watching is set toward the Lord's coming: "Take⁺ heed, watch⁺: for you⁺ don't know when the time is" (Mr 13:33). "Blessed are those slaves, whom the lord when he comes will find watching" (Lu 12:37). "We are not of the night, nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober" (1Th 5:5-6). "Look, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments" (Re 16:15; cf. Re 3:2; Re 3:11).
In the umbrella, prayerfulness is what the watchful soul is doing while it watches.
What is Asked
The texts give a wide range of what is brought to God. Wisdom: "But if any of you⁺ lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not upbraid; and it will be given him" (Jas 1:5; cf. 1Ki 3:5-12). Knowledge of God's will for others (Cl 1:9; Eph 1:15-16). Daily provision: "Give us day by day our daily bread" (Lu 11:3); "Remove far from me falsehood and lies; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is needful for me" (Pr 30:8); "If [the Speech of] God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat" (Ge 28:20). Healing: "My son, in sickness do not be negligent; Pray to God, for he can heal" (Sir 38:9); "for he also makes supplication to God To make his diagnosis successful, And the healing that it may give life" (Sir 38:14). Forgiveness: "And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us" (Lu 11:4); "make supplication concerning your former sins" (Sir 21:1); "Take with you⁺ words, and return to Yahweh: say to him, Take away all iniquity" (Ho 14:2); confession in Daniel (Da 9:4-19); confession in Ezra (Ezr 9:5-6). Boldness in proclamation (Ep 6:19). Rain (Zec 10:1; cf. Jas 5:17). The suffering and the cheerful alike: "Is any among you⁺ suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise" (Jas 5:13).
The Posture of the Heart
A last register, drawn especially from Sirach and the Psalms, is what the heart looks like when prayerfulness is real. It rises early: "He applies his heart to rise up early to the Lord who made him; And before the Most High he makes supplication, And opens his mouth in prayer, And makes supplication for his sins" (Sir 39:5); "If the Great Lord is willing, He will be filled with the spirit of understanding. He himself pours forth words of wisdom, And gives thanks to the Lord in prayer" (Sir 39:6). It runs the length of the life: "Yes, even when I am old and grayheaded, O God, don't forsake me" (Ps 71:18). It addresses God as Father and Master: "O Lord, Father, and Master of my life, Do not abandon me to their counsel" (Sir 23:4). It is willing to be disciplined: "O that one would set scourges over my mind, And the discipline of wisdom over my heart" (Sir 23:1). It cries from depth: "He who is bitter in spirit cries out in the pain of his soul, And his Rock will hear the voice of his cry" (Sir 4:6); "And I lifted up my voice from the earth, And from the gates of Sheol I cried" (Sir 51:9); "I will praise your name continually, And will remember you in prayer. Then Yahweh heard my voice, And gave ear to my supplication" (Sir 51:11). And, in the broader Greek-Christian tradition Diognetus represents, prayerfulness extends to the work of teaching itself: "I welcome your readiness. I ask of God, who supplies to us both speaking and hearing, that it may be granted to me to speak so that you may become better for having heard, and to you to hear so that he who speaks may not be grieved" (Gr 1:2).
The umbrella's whole picture is this: a person whose first move toward God is not crisis but conversation, whose body has learned the postures, whose words can be brief or long, whose heart is set toward Yahweh in the morning and in the night, whose intercession holds others up before God across whatever distance separates them, and whose watching and asking are one continuous habit of life.