Romans 15:13 & 30 –
<13>pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
<30>Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.
Oh how this just works on me today. I so dearly want people to pray for me, but on the other hand I wonder if I really pray enough for others. Notice the order Paul places these words! Verse 13 has Paul praying for others and wishing God’s work in their lives. That much later in verse 30, knowing he cannot survive on his prayers alone asks for others to pray for him. I pray that I keep the order correct in my mind, since many times I become self-absorbed in my day to day problems, and ask for prayers more than I give them
.
This chapter is a wonderful demonstration of Paul trying to teach others how to deal with each other. How they must submit to one and other for harmony and the first place to do this is in prayer. By reading this you should understand that is not where this stops, you don’t just pray for a person and move on. If you can help, do so with love and understanding. Paul always traveled and in this demonstrates his willingness to serve others. He is traveling to Jerusalem with an offering from the people of Macedonia and Achaia. Then he is going to Spain with a jaunt to Rome, all to spread the love of Jesus. These are huge trips he is taking, think about walking to NYC, then walking to Indianapolis on your way to Miami!
One little note that we must all be aware of is don’t use prayer for gossip. If you need prayers ask for them, if you wish the people to “share” you request that’s fine. But don’t use something in confidence to tell others about their issues. How many times have we heard the “pray for brothers so and so, he just …” and then it becomes a discussion on what he did and no prayer is given. Again be ever diligent on praying for others and how you pray for them. Also, don’t keep your requests bottled up as “petty” or “not worth God’s time”!
Think of God as light and our prayers as water drops. One drop in the air not much happens. But the more and more that get there than God’s “light” bends or “refracts” and creates a thing of beauty out of all “rain!” What may see awful and has you hating life suddenly has a rainbow appear from the storm. I may have to develop this analogy since it implies the prayers are the “storm”, but I think you get the idea. It’s not always one prayer that makes the rainbow, but many!