Words...

Words are something we all throw around, we say this and we say that, but do we ever stop and think about what we are saying? And I’m not talking about cussing or saying something foul. I’m talking about in ever day situations do we really listen to ourselves, or even know sometimes what we are saying? This past Sunday we learned one such lesson. There is a word we all throw around pretty loosely because we think it means something that it really doesn’t. That word is “want”. When most people say the word “want” they think that it means “desire” but it doesn’t. If you study the Word, when the bible (King James version) uses the word “want” it does not mean desire. Some examples you can look up are…Deuteronomy 28:48, Judges 18:10, Psalm 23:1, Psalm 34:10, etc. In many of this passages it will say the word “no” or “not” before the word “want” letting you know that “want” is something that is not desirable. If you look up the definition of “want” in the 1828 Websters dictionary (which has the origins of the word, mostly as they pertain to the bible) you get the following definitions…

-Deficiency; defect; the absence of that which is necessary or useful;
-Need; necessity; the effect of deficiency.
-Poverty; penury; indigence.
-The state of not having.
-To fall short; not to contain or have.
-To be without.
-To fail; to be deficient; to be lacking.

I also went to a program called E-sword, and found the Hebrew and Greek definitions of “want”…
-a deficit; specifically poverty
-deficiency; hence impoverishment: – lack, need, penury, poor, poverty, want.
-poverty: – in want of.
-To lack; by implication to fail, want, lessen: be abated, bereave, decrease (cause to) fail, (have) lack, make lower, want.
-To fail; by implication to ware out, decay.
-Lack; hence destitution: poverty, want.
-Lacking; hence without: – destitute, fail, lack, have need, void, want.
-A primitive root; to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication to destroy or consume; specifically to covenant (that is, make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces): – be chewed, be con- [feder-] ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ([covenant]), lose, perish, utterly, want.
-To be inferior, to fall short: come behind, be destitute, fall, lack, suffer need, (be in) want, be the worse.

As you can see all of these definitions have a negative connotation. Many of you might be saying WOW, I never looked at it that way, but I say that all the time. Don’t get down on yourself over it. It something we’ve all done, but from this point on we can change what we say. So I looked up the word “desire” to see what the actual meaning was, and this is what I found in Websters 1828…

-An emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected;
-To express a wish to obtain; to ask; to request; to petition.
-A prayer or request to obtain:
-The object of desire; that which is desired.
-Love; affection.
-To require.

In the Hebrew and Greek some of the definitions are…

-Stretching out after; a longing: – desire.
-To run after or over, that is, overflow
-A primitive root; to search out (by any method; specifically in worship or prayer); by implication to strive after: – ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make) request, require, seek (for).
-To delight in: – beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing, (great) delight, desire, goodly, lust, (be) pleasant (thing), precious (thing).
-Longing: – desire, lust after, pleasure.
-To wish for: covet, (greatly) desire, be desirous, long, lust (after).
-To cling, that is, join (figuratively) to love, delight in;
-To inquire; by implication to request; by extension to demand: – ask (counsel, on), beg, borrow, lay to charge, consult, demand, desire, earnestly, enquire, + greet, obtain leave, lend, pray, request, require, salute, straitly, surely, wish.
-Desire, goodly, pleasant, precious.

This sounds more like it…”desire”. That’s what we are all really looking for. Just something to think about. Something that makes you go…Hmmm. So next time you are carrying on a conversation or you are in prayer, make sure you are saying what you mean, and you are meaning what you say. God bless!

Tracy Willey