Why Did Paul Give Details About His Prayers? (Romans 1:8-15)

There are some things that we, from a cultural point of view or even from a frightened-of-what-others-might-think point of view, regard as inappropriate and among them is a person saying anything about his or her own prayers. It would certainly cause a few heads to be turned if one of us was to start speaking about his or her prayers. So why does Paul here go into detail about why and how he prayed for the Roman believers? Here are some reasons. I hope they will let us see that while we normally might not want to speak about our own prayers, they should be offered in such a way that others would understand what we are praying for and why we are making particular petitions.

1. Five reasons for why he did so

First, Paul was conscious that he was an example to other Christians. What benefit could he be to the Christians in Rome if he was not a praying person? Yet how would they know that he was that kind of man? Only by him revealing that he was. When they read his letter they would know that he had prayed for them often long before he came to be with them. And in his dedicated prayer life for those he intended to help one day he is an example for us. Do we pray for those we have not yet met? Do we pray that we will be a blessing to them and that God would be preparing us and them for when we do meet?

Second, Paul was aware of the accusation of hypocrisy. His opponents, within and without the Christian church, could easily make up and suggest wrong reasons for Paul wanting to go to Rome. What is an effective way of rebutting that ridiculous tendency in some people of applying wrong motives? Pray accurately and lovingly about what is on your heart.

Third, Paul realised that Christians should have reasons why they do or say things. We are not meant to engage in things from a mindless point-of-view. This goes for everything that they do and Paul, here in Romans and elsewhere is his letters, gives reasons as to why he prayed particular requests. We will consider some of his reasons as we work through the passage.

Fourth, Paul is not the only biblical author to go into detail regarding personal prayer. The obvious example of another set of persons is the psalmists – most of their songs can be classified as prayer, which is a reminder that prayer is not limited to one kind of speech. In addition, the prophets in the Old Testament often record their prayers. Jeremiah, for example, has recorded some moving and heartfelt and frank prayers that he made during difficult periods in his ministry.

Fifth, the Holy Spirit has included these words of Paul as part of Holy Scripture, which means that the Divine Author of the New Testament books desires that his people will take note of what is recorded and deduce appropriate lessons from them. The fact is, a true consideration of Paul’s prayer life will improve our own prayer lives.

2. To whom did Paul pray? (v. 8)

We may regard this question as unnecessary because we might think that the answer is so obvious – we pray to God. Nevertheless Paul chose to be very specific about this point and informed his readers that he was praying to ‘my God through Jesus Christ’. This is a very simple statement, yet it is full of profound theological truth. I was listening to someone speaking the other day and the individual said that he was not interested in theology. Perhaps he meant he did not like complex or distorted theology. The fact is that we need to know theology in order to pray intelligently. After all, God wants us to pray in a way that pleases him. In this statement we can see at least three important truths about prayer.

First, we pray to the Father normally. Of course, we can pray to the other members of the Trinity at times. We can see from this statement that Paul here was not directing his prayers to Jesus even although he was conscious of Jesus during times of prayer. And we know that Jesus taught his disciples in the Lord’s Prayer that they should address their words to the Father. When we pray, we are expressing the words stimulated within us by the Spirit of adoption who leads us to cry, ‘Abba, Father,’ as Paul indicates in Romans 8 and elsewhere.

Second, we pray conscious that Jesus is the Mediator between us and the Father. It is important for Christians to remember that they only have access to God through Jesus. What does it mean to have access to God in this way? It is almost like having a permanent friend at court who comes with us into the Father’s presence. Jesus is not there to persuade a reluctant Father to listen to us. The Father delights to hear his children pray, and he is delighted also when they acknowledge the worthiness of his Son and understand the roles that he fulfils continually in heaven. Jesus as our prophet teaches us by his word and Spirit how to pray, Jesus as our priest reveals that our sins have been pardoned through his atoning death, and Jesus as our king approves of the requests that arise from hearts led by the Spirit and instructed by his word and presents them as petitions that should be answered. 

We should remember where Jesus is. Sometimes we think of the process as if it were three levels – the Father on level one, we are on level three, and Jesus is in between on level two. It is better to remind ourselves that Jesus is on level one, seated on the throne of God, so when we pray through his name and according to his will we are dealing with One who although human is also fully divine.

Third, we pray as those who have been introduced into and given a permanent covenant status with the Father. Notice that Paul describes him as ‘my God’. The word ‘my’ indicates something we have or belong to. Each Christian has God has his provider and possession, and this relationship began at conversion as far as the believer is concerned. At that moment, he entered into a bond that can never cease, that can never be broken. When I say that Britain is my country, what do I mean? It means that I have all that Britain has to offer me. I can choose not to make use of all those benefits or may choose to disobey its laws. I will face consequences if I make either choice. Sadly we can do the same with regard to the God with whom we are in permanent relationship.

So Paul reminds the Romans that he prayed from a covenant relationship to the Father through Jesus the mediator. Going back briefly to the points made earlier, we can see that Paul was an example in how he regarded prayer, that he prayed with right motives, that he prayed thoughtfully, and that here we have an example of how the Divine Author of the Bible wants us to pray.

We can look more briefly at some other details of Paul’s prayer life mentioned here.

3. His prayer shows that he was a grateful man (v. 8)

In verse 8, he says, ‘I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.’ There may be a very simple lesson here, which is that when we pray for someone we should be aware of something about him or her for which we can give thanks to God. As we go through a prayer list of people, we should not focus on their flaws first.

It is important to note that Paul’s gratitude for them is comprehensive – he thanked God for all of them. When he said those words, he was not merely being polite. We can see that Paul’s affections were an imitation of God’s. How many of the Roman Christians did God care for, how many of the Roman Christians did Jesus represent, and how many of the Roman Christians was the Holy Spirit sanctifying? Each divine person cared for all of the Roman Christians. Therefore it is not surprizing that Paul’s prayers extended to all of them as well.

Of course, Paul did not know the church in as detailed a way as God did. The apostle would never have imagined that could be the case. Yet he did not use his limitations as a reason for not wanting to know more about them and we can see from Romans 15 that he knew a great deal about them even although he had not been there. We could almost regard that chapter as Paul’s prayer list for one of his times of prayer, although he probably did not have such a practice. So his comprehensiveness in prayer is a challenge to us about how we pray for people. Do we make an effort to find out what their needs are?

It is also important to note to whom Paul gives the credit for the wonderful witness of the church in Rome. We are not told how it happened, yet Paul was aware that people everywhere were talking about the church of Jesus in Rome. Some may have spoken in a condemning way, others may have spoken in an intrigued way, and others may have spoken in a thankful way. Those commenting on their lifestyles may have highlighted various people and assessed why it was happening. Paul gave all the credit to God.

4. His prayer shows that he was a servant of Christ (vv. 9-10)

The next detail that his prayer reveals is that he regarded prayer as an aspect of his service for Christ: ‘For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers.’ Sometimes we think that prayer is not part of spiritual work, that instead it is something we do after the work is over. So we may do something for the Lord and make a brief prayer about it asking for his blessing. That may be fine for some practical things, but in any spiritual activity the initial details are the easy part. If we witness to someone, we may need to pray for years before we see the result. Obviously in that example, diligent prayer is far harder than the witnessing.

How did Paul manage to keep on praying for them? The answer is that his service was driven by the kind of person he was on the inside. What kind of person was he? He was a servant, a servant of Christ. A servant basically does what he knows his master would do in a situation. Our prayer lives reveal the depth of our service and the determination of our service. We pray because of what Jesus did and of who Jesus is. People are often looking for techniques and methods that will improve their prayer lives. The way to pray is both simple and demanding – become a servant.

Of course, some might ask how they would know that Paul was telling the truth here. In order to prevent such an objection, Paul states that he could call on God as a witness that what was said was true. This way of speaking is a form of oath and makes it obvious that there are times when a serious oath involving the name of God is appropriate. No one who believes in God would make such an oath if they were not being honest about their claims.

5. His prayer shows that he was not deterred by providence (v. 10)

In verse 10, Paul mentions that he was ‘asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.’ Clearly he had been prevented from getting to Rome before. We are not told how often he had tried to go there. I suspect that the main reason for this failure was the demands of caring for churches elsewhere, as we can see from his letters. We know from this letter itself that Rome was not the furthest away place that Paul wanted to go to. After he reached Rome, he had the desire to go as far as Spain, which perhaps was the most distant westerly point that Paul would have been aware of.

The question of prayer and providence is a difficult one. How do we know whether a new development is God saying ‘no’ or God saying ‘not yet’ or God saying ‘not as you are currently planning’? The answer to that question is that usually we will not know until after the matter we are praying about has taken place. Subsequent events revealed that God did not say no and that he also did not answer exactly according to Paul’s plans. Paul did get to Rome, but he did not get there as one free to travel on to Spain. Instead he reached Rome as a prisoner. But that was several years ahead. So it looks that since God had not made it obvious that Paul’s plans to go to Rome were wrong the apostle therefore kept praying about and anticipating getting there. The point I am making is that silent providences are never a reason to stop praying about a matter. But I suspect they are one of the devil’s favourite arguments to do so.

6. His prayer shows that he wanted to benefit others (vv. 11-12)

People had different reasons for wanting to get to Rome. Even in the New Testament, we can see that Onesimus fled there from his master in Colosse, probably because it was a good place to hide. Politicians and rulers could be summoned there to give an account or they could go voluntarily to pay respects. Why did Paul want to go there? He tells us in verses 11 and 12: ‘For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you – that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.’

What does Paul mean by imparting a spiritual gift? I suspect he means that he would use his own God-given abilities to help them become better Christians, and that such benefits would have good effects on himself as well. If he had wanted to give a specific supernatural spiritual gift he probably would not have used the general term translated as ‘some’. This is one of the goals of Christian service, to enable others to make progress in the spiritual life.

It is also worth noting that Paul had not concluded he did not need to pray about helping the church in Rome. He has just said that their faith was one of quality, spoken about throughout the world. We might have assumed that he would say that they were fine and did not require such focussed attention from him and that instead he should be concerned with churches that had problems. Paul did not think that way because he knew that the best of churches had to keep growing if they were not to start backsliding away.

7. His prayer shows that he was gospel-focussed (vv. 13-15)

Paul’s final comment in this section on his prayers reveals the heartbeat of his spiritual outlook: ‘I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.’ He says three things about himself, and we should not regard them as boasting. Rather we should see them as a way of Paul requesting prayer for himself. It is almost as if he were asking his readers to pray about those priorities in his life. The three things are (1) a desire for a harvest of souls, (2) a sense of obligation to share the good news with all, and (3) an eagerness to preach to the inhabitants of Rome.

In a sense, his three details are self-explanatory, but I want to make three comments about them as we close. First, here we have a picture of an ideal minister’s heart and therefore a congregation should pray for those three details as far as their minister is concerned. It is also a picture of the ideal Christian witness, except we can substitute speaking for preaching, and we should also be praying that we would become this kind of witness.

Second, the gospel is suitable for everyone outside the church, whether refined and educated or unrefined and untaught – there is no reason to be embarrassed about its contents. It is God’s message and it will accomplish what he pleases. The gospel is also suitable for everyone within the church – the maturest believer needs to hear the gospel often, probably every day.

Third, Paul makes a connection between harvesting and preaching. He would be surprised if he could see what is happening today in our country in that most converts are not through preaching. At one time they were, but things have changed. Why? It might be the rise of so-called expository preaching, but personally I would say the cause is the lack of corporate prayer. Here Paul calls the Roman Christians to pray that his preaching would be fruitful.