The Greek noun aitēma (αἴτημα) means a specific request, petition, or thing asked for. It is the noun form of aiteō (G154, to ask, request). In the New Testament, aitēma appears three times — in Luke 23:24 (the crowd's demand), Philippians 4:6 (present your requests to God), and 1 John 5:15 (we have whatever we have asked of Him).
The word carries the concreteness of a specific, articulated request — as opposed to vague longing or general prayer. A aitēma is a defined petition brought before a specific authority with an expectation of response.
Philippians 4:6 is one of the Bible's great anxiety-antidotes: 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition (proseuchē and deēsis), with thanksgiving, present your requests (aitēmata) to God.' The specificity of aitēma is significant — Paul is not encouraging vague spiritual openness but specific, named, concrete petition.
1 John 5:14–15 grounds this confidence in God's will: 'If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us... we know that we have what we asked of him.' The confidence of prayer is not in the force of our asking but in the character of the One we ask. God is a Father who gives good gifts (Matthew 7:11), and bringing specific petitions to Him is an act of faith and trust in His goodness.