Striving in Prayer | Romans 15:30-33

30I 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, 31that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

33May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Here Paul makes an appeal to the Roman Church, and by implication, every Christian reader including you and me. This word translated “appeal” is a combination of two root words which mean “close beside” and “call”. It is as though God has inspired Paul to walk up to you, look you in the eyes and say, “Please do this.”

The basis for Paul’s appeal is not his authority or reputation or worthiness of any kind. It is the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit. Since we are all subjects of the same Lord and recipients of the same Love, we ought to hear and respond to this appeal heartily.

The Appeal

What is this appeal that God is making to us through Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians? It is to strive together in our prayers.

To strive together is to agonize alongside one another toward a shared goal. It is a strenuous word, an invitation to strain and sweat. One strives when in pursuit of a great accomplishment. One strives when in conflict with a great enemy or obstacle. One strives when fleeing a great danger. And what is the arena of Christian striving? It is prayer.

Note the juxtaposition between striving and prayer, agonizing work and quiet communion with God. How counterintuitive our walk with Christ can be! Our greatest battles are fought in a silent, kneeling position. How vainly we strive on our feet when we have failed to first strive on our knees.

This sort of praying is strenuous. I suspect that we fail to pray this way because we’ve been led to believe that prayer is easy. The type of prayer Paul appeals for isn’t easy. It’s agonizing, akin to Jesus’ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood.

The Danger and the Aspiration

Paul needs prayer for three reasons:

1. He’s about to embark on a dangerous trip to Jerusalem, where many want him silenced.
2. He wants his service on this trip to be acceptable to the struggling Christians there.
3. He hopes to visit the Roman church afterward and be refreshed in their company.

Great danger and aspiration fuel striving prayers. Remember the fledgling church, praying in the upper room in Acts 2. They had no New Testament for direction on what to do next. They had no other churches after which to model. There was no Amazon.com or books on church planting to guide them. They had their memories of Jesus’ teachings, their fellowship and prayer, prayer, prayer. Consequently, they came together and prayed, prayed, prayed. And it was during their striving together in prayer that the Holy Spirit burst onto the scene and enabled them supernaturally to move forward together.

Perhaps another reason we don’t pray this way is that we have no great dangers or aspirations and we have many things to lean on aside from God. Why pray when the greatest danger we face is slacking attendance, musical hiccups and hurt feelings? We can boost attendance with an exciting new sermon series and some flyers. We can smooth out the worship service with some more practice. We can safeguard people’s feelings by being nicer. Why pray when the greatest aspiration we hold is to survive our daily grind? We can do that with caffeine, Facebook and TV. What poor, pathetic Christianity it is that knows no dangers or aspirations so great that they require God.

Like Paul, we are called to the dangerous missions of the Kingdom, which require striving together in prayer. As we engage more seriously with our assignments, we will experience the joyful, refreshing camaraderie of real Christian fellowship that Paul anticipates with his co-strivers in Rome.

So let us strive together in our prayers, and may the God of peace be with us all. Amen.

Discussion Starters

1. Who is your go-to pray-er? Whom do you ask to pray when you really need it?
2. Read verse 30. How does making this appeal “by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit” strengthen the request?
3. Why does Paul ask them to “strive together with me in your prayers”? How is this different and more robust than simply, “Please pray for me”?
4. What does striving together in our prayers look like? How can we respond to his appeal?
5. What prayer-inducing dangers do we face as a Christians? As a church?
6. What prayer-inducing aspirations do we have as Christians? As a church?
7. When is the last time you had to reach out to someone for prayer support? What was the situation? How did it turn out?