A prefix is a word or letters placed before another word (e.g. recreate, unacceptable, disinterested), usually changing the meaning of the original word. I find it interesting that so many of the things God wants to do in our lives involve the prefix re (meaning again). God wants to regenerate us (give us new birth, being born again), renew us, revive us (bring to life again that which has died) and rebuild our lives.
A suffix is a morpheme added at the end of a word (e.g. kindly, fearful, hopeless). These are common in the English language and effectively give us a wider vocabulary based on an original word (thus hopeful and hopeless are both based on the word hope, but the suffixes -ful and -less change the meaning of this word in different ways.)
I find it interesting that we often feel fearful and hopeless (full of fear and without hope), whereas God wants us to be fearless and hopeful (without fear and full of hope.) The few letters of a suffix can make a big difference to the attitudes we need to display!
Jesus can transform us in different ways, at times removing wrong things from us (fear) and at times adding right things to our lives (hope). We need to be prepared to let go of wrong things and to receive right things.
An interesting play on words is found in the aphorism ‘God deals in cans, not cannots.’ May today be a ‘can’ day in God!
