At the start of his letter Paul told the Church that he was continually in prayer for them and now towards the end of it he comes back to it and asks for prayer from them.
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15 v 30)
- He is not afraid to ask for prayer, he appeals for it. We should too.
- His filter for prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ. The response to these prayers is for whatever He wants. It is for us too.
- He knows that those who pray care, they carry love for those they pray for because the Spirit has given them that love. We need to ask for this love and then we will pray more.
- He reveals the beautiful alignment available as the family of God as he invites them to join him. Even if people are thousands of miles away and even if we have never met physically, we can be with them in their situation.
- He refers to him being in a struggle and asks that they enter into that same struggle through prayer. If he is suggesting that prayer is the struggle then we could think of Jacob wrestling with God, or even what the Apostle says about wrestling with principalities etc (Ephesians 6:12). But it could simply be that the struggle is with ourselves so as not to give up.
- He points to the supreme alignment which outweighs that with himself and this is to God. Submission to Almighty God is the focus of our praying.
Just some thoughts from a verse on prayer.
Missions Paul 