Romans 15:22-33: a reflection

22Therefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you, 23but now, no longer having any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come to you, 24whenever I travel to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. 25But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. 26For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. 27Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in material things. 28When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by way of you to Spain. 29I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ. 30Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, 31that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32that I may come to you in joy through the will of God, and together with you, find rest. 33Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

As Paul writes to the Romans about his travel plans and his mission, he makes an earnest request: I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. Notice the striking phrase: strive together with me in your prayers. Paul does not see prayer as a passive or minor thing; he calls it a striving, a labor, and he asks the Romans to labor alongside him in it, to be his partners and fellow workers through prayer.

Notice how Paul regards prayer: as real, shared labor. He asks the Romans to strive together with him in prayer, as though prayer were a joint effort, a way of laboring alongside him in his mission though they were far away. Prayer, for Paul, is not a spectator activity but a striving, and one in which believers partner with and support one another. Those who prayed for Paul were genuinely working alongside him.

That elevates our view of prayer for others. We may think of prayer as a small thing we do when we cannot do anything more practical. But Paul saw it as real labor, a striving, a genuine partnership in the work of others. When you pray for someone, for their needs, their work, their struggles, you are not doing something minor; you are striving alongside them, laboring with them, partnering in their work through prayer. Do not underestimate the ministry of praying for others. Strive together with those you pray for, laboring alongside them in prayer, and ask others to strive together with you. Prayer is real work; through it, we partner with and uphold one another.

Lord, Paul asked the Romans to strive together with him in their prayers, seeing prayer not as a passive or minor thing, but as real labor in which believers partner with and uphold one another. Lift my own view of prayer. Keep me from treating prayer for others as a small thing I do when I can do nothing more practical. Help me see it as real labor, a striving, a genuine partnership in the work and struggles of others. When I pray for someone, let me labor alongside them in prayer, truly partnering with them. And help me ask others to strive together with me in prayer, upholding one another in this real work. Teach me to strive together with those I pray for, and to value the ministry of prayer as the true labor it is.