Prayer and the Will of God
Romans 1:8-13 (NASB)
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you,
10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established;
12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Epistle to the Romans opens with a prayer. In verse 10, Paul requests that he would successfully make a journey to see the Roman saints. Granted, Paul's desire to be with the Romans was his will, but he wanted to make sure it was God's will also. He had this desire for a while, for it says in verse 13 that he “often” planned to visit them. And his motive was certainly commendable: he wanted to impart a spiritual gift to them so that they would be established. Despite his strong desire, and despite having a godly motive, Paul was not willing to undertake the trip to Rome unless it was God’s will. At the close of this epistle, we read something similar:
Romans 15:30-32 (NASB)
30 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
31 that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the [o]saints;
32 so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Here Paul asked the Roman saints to join him in prayer concerning three things, one of which is that he might visit them. Even though Paul wanted to see the Roman saints, and while seeing them would bring him joy and refreshment, he was not willing to undertake the journey unless it was the will of God. It was Paul’s will to be sure. But was it God’s will? Paul didn't pray, “God I want to go see the Romans. Please bless my journey and make it prosperous; help me get the transportation I need and protect me when I go. And make sure I get a prime parking spot when I pull up in my chariot.” Instead, he prayed to visit them if it was in accordance with God’s will.
Sometimes, I think we get this backwards. We make up our minds concerning what we want, we justify our motives with Bible verses, then we ask God to “bless” our decision.
Wouldn’t we do better to imitate Paul? Rather than determining ahead of time what we want, perhaps we can spend time in prayer to find out what God wants. Prayer is a wonderful time to ascertain the will of God in our lives.
