Christians: What do you think of the phrase "I covet your prayers"?

This is a word that got corrupted and originally meant to 'desire eagerly',

and comes from 'cupere' to desire. It means the person values you,

thinks highly of you. It's like what happened to 'gay', which was stolen

and twisted. See it as the compliment and good thing it is actually

meant to be. It is blessing you. But this word was twisted to mean

the opposite.

Coveting Definition

But here’s my problem . . . since coveting is obviously one of the big no-no’s of the Ten Commandments, how did this ever become a “Christian” phrase? This makes about as much sense as me saying, “I am lusting after the young people in my community to come to Christ!” Or how about, “I have a murderous desire to teach the Word of God.” Both of these latter examples do a good job of describing a particular sentiment, but we would all agree they are not appropriate. If these latter examples are not appropriate, how can the former phrase be appropriate? It isn’t.

My next question is . . . when Christians use this phrase, do they think about the biblical definition of “covet” and misuse it anyway or are they simply repeating “Christian” verbiage without any thought process? Whatever the answers may be, they are both bad.

So, please . . . for goodness sake . . . l covet your attention to this matter . . . Oops, I mean I desire your attention to this matter. (Did you notice how acceptable “covet” was in this sentence because of the numerous times you and I have heard it misused?)

Covetousness, like jealousy, is not always bad. If we covet things that are good for our souls and are not being taken away from others, then it is fine. A Christian who lives in a country where Bibles are being burned, he might rightly covet his own Bible.

If I say "I covet your prayers", it is just another way of saying that I want you to pray for me often. If I tell you to not pray for others simply because I want your prayers, then that is sinful.

Hi Martin,

Can you give me the verse reference where these words appear? I tried finding in in two or three references in that exact wording, but could not find it.

Covet are used in examples of good things as well eg 1Cor 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts...

In this verse Strong´s give the original Greek word as zeloo(a form of zelos), that should give you a clue (zealous?). The Strongs gives sinonyms for covet here as desire, eagerly desire, show zeal, affect, feel an attitude or emotion of deep concern. It also gives examples of the word in a bad context, jealous, zealously desire etc. Thus I do not think the word covet is the bad one, I think it is the combination of words around it, that lends it a specific meaning.

Thus, I would say that God really seek our prayers. He desires it strongly. It affects Him deeply. God wishes to communicate with us. He wishes to be in conversation to us. The way we join this conversation is through prayer.

Webster defines the word covet: "to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property."

In the bible, Paul defines covet:

"What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn’t have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn’t have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, “You must not covet.” Romans 7:7 and

For the commandments, “You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not covet,” and every other commandment are summed up in this statement: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Romans 13:9

The only answer to your questions is that coveting is wrong period! I can't see where in either secular or biblical terms, coveting is permissible.

This phrase is usually used by those who have a great need and deeply, urgently desire the prayers of others in hopes of hearing an answer from God. In regards to the concern that it is "always" wrong to coven and that it is sinful, perhaps this answer from my Bible word study will be of assistance. The word is "Chamadh: to desire, covet, long for; to be desirable, be costly, be precious; to feel delight. This word is part of the Ten Commandments, it refers to an inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire... " Now since the desire for prayer is not ungoverned selfish desires for things that don't belong to us, there is no sin attached in this phrase. Hopefully this helps answer your question. God bless.

Paul was beat, stoned, and ship wrecked, just to name a few. His whole life consisted of nothing but ministering, building churches, mentoring aspiring young preachers. I suppose that we 'christians' today cannot hardly relate to what Paul really means when he says, "I covet your prayers".

That's just kind of an over used phrase that is said without really thinking; it is not meant to be a bad thing; it's just a "Catch Phrase" that unfortunately Christians say without giving any real thought to what they're saying because they hear it so much......

Rather archaic, but I suspect God doesn't mind when we covet that which gives us genuine help and which benefits the giver.

Cheers,

Bruce