Joining by Prayer

  

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

JOINING BY PRAYER

Rom 15:30-33

30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, 32 so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

NIV

Further concluding remarks about his going to Jerusalem to deliver the offering gift he was given to take to the poor there. He is asking the church in Rome to pray and join him in his struggle by praying for him. That is something we may not have noticed before about praying for others who are having a struggle. However, first, we also noticed that our praying or those who are struggling is due to our relationship, or motivated by our  Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. This does not mean our love for Christ and the Spirit, but they are the channel of love. It is the Greek word dia, which denotes the channel of an act. This implies that we in our humanity are not capable of joining with someone who is having a struggle unless we are in the power of Christ and the agape love of the Spirit. About this joining in someone’s struggle by praying for them, it is interesting this Greek word, sunagonizomai is only used this one time in the entire New Testament. It means to partner with, struggle in company with, to help in striving with them. This would not be having compassion on them because they are having a struggle, but this would be empathizing with them, being in concert with their struggle, to be moved within the core of our being, feeling their struggle, by joining with them by praying for them. This is not that simple, “I will pray for you”. Or “I am praying for you” type of comment, with the idea that we do not understand the inner struggle of their heart, but that we will remember them in our daily prayers, mentioning their name, asking God to bless them, or something of that nature. This is a deep moving of our spirit, to be in the passion of their struggle, of whatsoever that might be. There can be various events that can be the cause of a person’s struggle. For Paul, it was to be rescued from the unbelievers in Jerusalem, for he once was one of them, a Jew of Jews, a Pharisee, a Zealot who persecuted believers in Jesus. Now, he was a believer of believers, a zealot for Jesus, and his former companions hated him for his being a turncoat, at least in their eyes. But we can have all sorts of struggles in different areas of our lives. It would behoove a person who is having some struggle to be transparent enough to admit the details of their struggle, as Paul has done. Then we who are currently not engaged with any struggle of our own can join in their struggle through the power of Jesus Christ and the love of the Spirit as he moves within us with this empathy, "feeling their pain", so to speak, so our prayers would be the fervent, or effectual prayer because we are righteous men, due to being in Christ, and it will avail much, as James said. Then those words, “Let us pray for you in your struggle” will mean something. We will be joining by prayer.