What Am I Saying When I Say Amen?

Since Christianity has been around awhile, it has developed many traditions: for example, praying at every meal, passing around an offering plate and singing hymns.  None of these are wrong; tradition is not bad.  But it is interesting that we sometimes find ourselves following tradition when we don't even know what the tradition is about.  It reminds me of my friend Tevye from the musical Fiddler on the Roof.  In the song called "Tradition" he says this,

"Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything... how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl... This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start? I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition... Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."

Tevye at least understands that keeping his head covered and wearing a prayer shawl is supposed to reflect his constant devotion to God.  However, he doesn't know where this tradition came from; he simply follows it because it is "tradition."  In Christianity, we have several phrases/terms that we speak that are tradition for us.  Two of them I find enlightening because Christians sing them all the time but few know what they mean: Hosanna and Hallelujah. Hosanna means "Save" referring to God's salvation.  Hallelujah means "praise the Lord."  But the term I am going to address in this blog is "amen."  We say amen after almost all our prayers and we sometimes say it aloud in church when we like something we hear.  But do we know what amen means?  I joked with my husband one day that amen essentially means "I'm done praying; it's your turn next" :-D

When I was young, someone explained to me that amen meant "so be it."  In other words, that after I pray I am affirming that what I prayed I want to happen: So be what I have prayed.  That made sense and I never thought about it farther than that. For this summer, I've been doing a Bible study called Knowing God By Name.  The name I read about today was "faithful and true," in Hebrew, emet elohim emet.  I learned that emet is a term that is a derivative from the term aman, the term from which amen originates.  Amen literally means "faithful, true."

I was intrigued and awed to learn that both God and Jesus are personally tied to this term.  Isaiah 65:16 calls God "the God of Amen" often translated "the God of Truth" in our English translations.  Jesus is called "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" in Revelation 3:14.  Jesus also used amen himself.  In the gospels, we often read Jesus starting a statement with the phrase "truly, truly, I say to you..." or "verily, verily, I say to you."  The phrase is literally, "amen, amen, I say to you..."  In using the term amen, Jesus was letting his listeners know that he was speaking truth to them. I conclude from these verses that God is truth, Jesus is truth and Jesus and God speak truth.

So what exactly does amen mean when we say it?  I love that the Bible has answered this question directly for us.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus). That is why it is through him (Jesus) that we utter our Amen to God for his glory."  We speak amen to God through Jesus ("in Jesus' name, amen") because all God's promises are answered in Jesus.  God's faithfulness, his amen, his truth is answered in Christ.  Mary Kassian explains it this way: "Your 'Amen' affirms that you believe that God's character is trustworthy...that you are confident He will hear your prayer, be faithful and true to do what He promised, and fulfill His purposes in your life."  In saying "in Jesus' name, amen," you are acknowledging that through Jesus God has shown himself to be trustworthy and He will faithfully fulfill his promises through Christ in your life.

What do I take away from this?  That I ought to be careful what I pray for.  That I need to realize that in saying "In Jesus' name, Amen," I am saying something quite serious.  It isn't just a flippant, traditional phrase.  It is a phrase rich with real meaning.  If I am affirming that God is true and faithful to carry out his promises, what have I just prayed?  Have I prayed in line with this truth?  It is interesting to me that when Jesus answered the disciples' desire to be taught to pray, he responded with what we now call "The Lord's Prayer."  Do you realize that in that prayer all that is prayed is true statements about God and what he will do for us?  His name is to be hallowed, his will is to be done, he will provide for us, he will forgive us and help us to forgive others, and he will deliver us from evil.  All of these we can utter a hearty "Amen!" to.  There is nothing in this prayer about giving me the material things I want or pleading with God to make things happen or not happen that I desire to go or not go my way.  This prayer is about praying in God's will and with God's will.  When I pray this way, in God's will, then I can say "amen."

Prayer is fundamentally about shaping my will to God's will.  Prayer is a way to remind myself of God's truth and faithfulness.  I pray, not to get what I want, but to call God's truth to mind and to declare to God that I know what is true about him, that I know he will be faithful to me.  Thus, the word amen makes complete sense.  In saying amen, I declare to God, "Yes!  True is what I have prayed!  Faithful you remain!  I trust you completely my God every step of my life!"

The question to consider then is this: Is your amen truly amen?  Can what you pray really be followed with amen?