Love. Faith. Repent. Pray. Inspiration. These precious words are losing their power for Christians. We can restore their vitality by recovering their true meaning.

You won’t find these definitions in a dictionary.

LOVE: Here is a wonderful word describing what each of us needs every day. We can’t imagine enjoying life without it. And yes, love does create feelings. But far too many people think love is only an emotion.

Biblical love is far deeper than emotions. God loved the world so much he gave us his only Son — a costly action. When Christ commanded us to love our enemies, was he just asking us to feel good toward them? No! Such costly commands to love are deep and strong throughout the New Testament. Love is a commitment to care and to act.

FAITH: We all agree on part of this word’s meaning. Faith is what we believe beyond what can be proven scientifically. This is the mental part of faith. But Christian faith is not basically mental. It is meant to be a relationship with God.

When faith is perceived as only what we think, it separates people more than unifies them. But biblical faith is trust in and commitment to God and to Jesus Christ, who gave himself to us and calls us to present ourselves to him and to one another. Faith is a relationship of trust, not just a thought.

REPENT: This is a deep word that has gotten shallow. Christians all agree it means turning away from our sins and opening ourselves to God’s grace and forgiveness. But far too many of us see repentance as something we just have to do once. Until a few years ago, that’s what I thought too. I was glad I had turned from my sin — when I was a teenager.

Then God’s Spirit woke me up. A wonderful old hymn really helped: “I’m Only a Sinner Saved By Grace.” That’s “I am,” not “I was.” Sin is my present problem, not only my past. I need to repent every day.

PRAY: For most of my Christian life I saw prayer as talking to God and asking him to do things. Both of these are good approaches to our Lord. Yet prayer is more than that.

Prayer is conversation, a time to hear from the Lord even while talking to him. The desire to hear what God wants to tell me has become a wonderful attraction to my prayer times. While I continue to talk to God and ask things of him, I now also listen when I pray.

INSPIRATION: Many who read 2 Tim. 3:16 (“All Scripture is God-breathed . . .”) think biblical inspiration means dictation. They imagine God giving all of the Bible’s inspired words directly from heaven. The writers did not need to think or make choices. God’s Spirit just pushed their hands. False!

Inspiration means God gave the writers their desire to write. Then God helped them choose what to say. They fully responded to God, but God did not give them their exact words. They wrote from their hearts. Therefore we must listen to their feelings. We not only need to enter the words of their minds but also get into their hearts. This leads us to deeper experiences of worship and better interpretation of the Bible.

Dan Longenecker, of Lititz, Pa., is a retired Mennonite minister.