Prayer (Romans 15:30-32)

We suggested last time that in this section of the chapter we have several of Paul’s principles of leadership in which he stressed matters that he thought were of significance for the Christians in Rome to embrace. There was mutual encouragement, adherence to his calling, engage in mercy ministries and participate in fellowship. In the verses 30-32 he mentions another feature that he judged crucial in the Christian life – prayer.

Before we consider this feature, we can comment briefly on how Paul describes his friends in Rome. They are his brothers, which points to membership of the same family. How did they become brothers? It was through what God had done for them after they believed in Jesus. The gospel had come to them and informed them that God had done something about their circumstances as sinners estranged from him. Jesus had paid the penalty for their sins and they could be forgiven if they trusted in him. Such a divine attitude was marvellous in itself. When they asked for mercy, they became justified in God’s sight.  

In addition, God adopted them into his family and they became his children. The Bible reveals that this is a very exalted position, one in which they become joint heirs with Jesus. As members of God’s family they have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. And we can see one of the privileges here – the privilege of prayer.

Trinitarian prayer

It is worth noting that Paul’s view of prayer was Trinitarian. He refers to the lordship of Jesus, to the love of the Spirit, and prayers to the Father. This is a reminder of how Christians are to think of God. We know this is the case from the fact that we close our services with a benediction that mentions the involvement in our lives of the Trinity. There are other ways in which the Bible reminds us of this reality. Baptism is an obvious example because we are baptised in the name of the Trinity. Paul reveals how Trinitarian his thinking is in Ephesians 1:1-14 where he describes the doctrine of salvation by what each of the divine persons does.

With regard to the lordship of Jesus in this area, we can think about two features connected to the position that Jesus occupies as sovereign Lord. First, as Lord, he commanded his people to pray. This is so obvious that we are liable to forget that prayer is what he expects from his people. Second, as Lord he has been exalted to answer the prayers of his people. He said so in the upper room when he encouraged his disciples to pray to him after he had left them and returned to heaven. So if he has commanded us to pray and has encouraged us to pray, we have reasons to engage in prayer.

Paul also mentions the love of the Spirit here. The apostle may mean that they should pray for him because love is the atmosphere that the Spirit creates and in which he wants his people to live. Or he could mean that prayer is a specific way in which the Spirit shows his love as he enables us to pray. It may be the case that Paul here is referring to the double intercession that he mentions in Romans 8 when he wrote that the Jesus intercedes for us in heaven and the Spirit intercedes for us in our hearts with groans too deep for words.

Four features of this description of prayer

In looking at what Paul says about prayer here, we can make four brief comments. First, it is obvious that Paul earnestly desired the prayers of the Roman Christians. He appealed to them to do so. I don’t suppose that there were many things in life that Paul would plead for, but one of them is prayer.

The second comment is that Paul valued earnest, intercessory prayer. We can see that the prayer should be earnest from the way Paul describes it in verse 30 – ‘strive’. This word points to energy and persistence, giving it our all, we could say. Perhaps the image of wrestling comes to mind. The inhabitants of Rome were used to seeing wrestlers at the games in the circus in which every muscle was used in order to win. Paul says that we should use energetic prayers.

Third, the kind of prayer that Paul valued was united prayer. He wanted them all to participate in prayer for him. So we can imagine the believers in Rome meeting together to pray for Paul as he engaged in his service for the Master. This involvement of more than one indicates that plurality in prayer has more likelihood in receiving an answer. If that was not the case, then Paul and his friends would have prayed together and not bothered asking for others to join them in prayer.

Fourth, Paul wanted them to engage in specific prayer for him and he provided them with three details to pray about. He wanted protection from those he knew would oppose him in Judea, he wanted the collection from Gentiles to be accepted by the Jewish church, and he wanted to come to Rome in order to have fellowship. Paul’s example here is a reminder and a challenge to us to use intelligent and relevant prayer requests.

Unanswered prayer

We can read the petitions that Paul stated and we know that God did not answer each of them in the way Paul wanted. The only petition that was answered in that way was the middle one, that the collection would be accepted. God did not protect Paul from unbelievers and he had to be rescued from a mob by the Roman authorities, so the first petition was denied. Paul did get to Rome eventually, but not in the way he had anticipated; when he reached Rome a few years later, he did so as a prisoner about to go on trial.

This raised the issue of unanswered prayer. We are familiar with the explanation that God can say yes to our prayers, that he can yes but not at the moment, or he can yes but not in the way that we want, or he can say no. Paul had good and wise reasons for his petitions, so we cannot find fault with them. No doubt, the Roman Christians would have prayed for him, so we cannot find fault with them. Instead we have to bow to God and confess that he knows best.

The fact is that most Christians eventually confess that they are glad that some of their most ardent prayers were refused. They are glad because they now have further insight into things. Yet sometimes we cannot work out why God said no. When that happens, we should leave that decision with him. It is not always easy to do so, yet it is what is required of us.