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Praütes – a Greek word I was unfamiliar with until Sunday night and am still trying to grasp the full meaning of. According to Peter vanBreeman in As Bread That Is Broken (1974), it is a word that “can only be translated very inaccurately into English.” It’s more like the fruit of the Spirit that isn’t a list of nine qualities, but the combination of those qualities that embodies the Spirit itself and the qualities we have access to through the Spirit.
The translations of praütes that most resonated with me were the ones that described a “stillness of the heart” and one that “knows him/herself loved by God.” For me, those two things are very connected. I cannot attempt to manifest a stillness of the heart if I do not know myself loved by God and allow that and only that to define me.
When I think of Jesus’ reaction to the crowd that wanted to kill Him and yet He just walked right through them (Luke 4:16-30), only a man with stillness of heart and that knew Himself loved by God could do that. When I think of Jesus going to the cross, facing all the human emotion and inner turmoil that came with those circumstances—only a stillness of the heart and knowing Himself loved by God would get Him through. Praütes. May we have the hope and peace that come from stillness of the heart and knowing ourselves loved by God.
On this Transformational Tuesday, may we follow the model of Christ and be characterized by praütes.
Special thanks to Mandy Lillich for sharing her book and her insight!
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Sunday a week ago, with my Iron Rose Sisters here in Brighton, I was asked to read Luke 6:12-16 aloud. I must’ve been distracted when I started because as I read the first line “One of those days…” I read it with all the weight of having had “one of those days” myself. I chuckled and then went back to the beginning to read the verse with more reverence. I was at a Bible study, wasn’t that what I was supposed to do? I got another line in and it only served to make me laugh more.
Jesus, most certainly was experiencing “one of those days,” but it was what He did with it that stopped me cold and reminded me why we’re looking to Him as our Human AND Holy example. The story right before verse 12 refers to Jesus allowing His disciples to eat grain on the Sabbath and then Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. This made the Pharisees and the teachers of the law furious and they started plotting what to do with Him. Yeah, I’d say that qualifies as “one of those days.”
So, with that in mind, allow me to share the entire verse (Luke 6:12). “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
On this Makeover Monday, may you turn “one of those days” into an opportunity to spend some alone time with God. There’s no better answer. Jesus, Himself, gave testimony to that.