The Apostle's Prayer
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First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;
That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
When we enter into prayer our first business in to thank and glorify God
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
To Thank God or to praise God should always be first. Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with our Father which art in heaven hollowed be thy name.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
In everything
When we give thanks something happens in our mind and our heart and our perspective changes of everything.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
He says I thank my God. He is my God not just a God or even the God but he is my God my personal God who I have a personal relationship with through Jesus Christ.
So he says I thank my God through Jesus Christ as He is his God through Jesus Christ but also Jesus is his access to God. We can only pray to God through Jesus Christ. This is the same as to pray in Jesus name. Expound.
He thanks God through Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ is the source of all good works and every fruit of righteousness. Even our gratefulness is a fruit of the Spirit granted to us through Jesus Christ. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can do anything good at all. And Paul makes sure that the saints in Rome know that he gives thanks for them but he cannot take credit for this prayer but Jesus gets the glory for Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving.
What does he give thanks for? Your faith. Lets take careful notice of what Paul says here because this has been said very carefully and precisely. He is giving God thanks for their faith. Why would Paul thank God for their faith. For the same reason that Paul cannot take credit for this thanksgiving to God he also must assign God the glory for their faith. God is the source of their faith.
Faith, itself is a grace of God and if I think that I came to Christ because of my faith then I would have something to boast in.
Our faith is not our own work but it is the gift of God and so God must be thanked for our faith all glory must be given to God. No man comes to the Son except the Father draws them.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
How did Paul even know of their faith to give thanks for it? He says because it is spoken of through out the whole world. So wherever Paul went to preach the Gospel he heard people talking about the faith of the saints in Rome. He doesn’t tell us what he heard about their faith but we can assume that their faith was evident so that people who saw their faith had something to say about it. True living faith is visible faith. As James said faith without works is dead. In Heb. 11 we learned that by faith Abel offer a more excellent sacrifice, Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God, by faith Noah built an ark, Abraham obeyed God and went out not know where he was going. The point is this faith compels us to action otherwise it not faith. Just as the elders obtained a good report by faith so these saints obtain a good report throughout the whole world because of faith. What do people say about your faith?
After giving thanks Paul move on to..
Intercession
Intercession
What does intercede mean? The Latin cedere means "to go", so "go between" is the most literal meaning of intercede. (The same -cede root can also be seen in such words as precede and secede.)
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
So Paul makes claim that he has been praying for them continually and always. Many people will say I’ve been praying for you or they will say I’ll be praying for you but often we may forget. Or maybe we have just said it because it’s what you say to people when they tell you something that they are going through that is difficult.
But Paul wants the saints in Rome to know that that’s not what he’s doing here. He really does pray for the continually and always. So to convince them of his sincerity he calls God as his witness. For some things God may be our only witness. But even if we have no other witness we have God as our witness.
Jesus said when we pray we should not do as the hypocrite do because they love to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the street to be seen of men. But rather enter into your closet and pray to your Father which sees in secret and he will reward you openly.
So with this sort of prayer God is our only witness. God is the best witness because he will only witness truth. So it’s no good to call God as your witness if you are not telling the truth.
So Paul, in order to confirm this fact calls God as his witness and to emphasise this he adds
“whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son”
Serve here is as the Israelites served Yahweh in the temple worship. So literally he is saying whom I worship. He says that he worships God with his spirit, meaning his intermost part, in other words whom he worships with his whole heart, in the gospel or in the proclamation of the gospel of God.
Just as a little footnote here, we have some very confused ideas in the church today about worship.
worship that Paul describes here is doing the ministry that he has been called to namely the preaching of the gospel. That is worship.
So with this confirmation he states his claim which is that he makes mention of them in his prayers continually and always.
This is intercession. He has been speaking to God on their behalf. but he doesn’t give any details here on what he has been praying for them. However, we can look at what he has prayed for others to get an idea.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Intercession is powerful and purposeful and when we do it we enter into the work of God and become co-labourers with the God head.
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
If you want to know the heart of God learn to intercede for others in prayer.
So after thanksgiving and intercession Paul then make his request.
Request
Request
For many this is all that prayer is for them. They come to God with a shopping list of things they would like God to do for them. If this is all prayer is for you then you’re missing out on the true purpose and the true blessing of prayer. Prayer is not about us coming to God and asking Him to do things for us. This is why I think so many are discouraged in prayer. And why so many feel their prayers are not answered. The greatest blessing of prayer for us is that it helps us to aline our will with God’s will. It helps us to know the heart of God and discover His will.
If we would follow the outline of prayer that Paul gives us in these verses Thanksgiving first then Intercession then Request, then we would find that our request would be more inline with God’s will, and our prayer would be answered positively more frequently.
Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;
That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
The first thing I notice here is that Paul qualifies his request with “by the will of God” The way Jesus put it in the Lord’s prayer is thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This kind of prayer acknowledges that we don’t always know what is best.
it is submissive to God
it is where the power of prayer lies and how we have confidence in prayer.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;
That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
Paul’s request is that he might be able to have a prosperous journey that he might impart some spiritual gift that they might be strengthened. Now, this is not the gifts of the Spirit which Paul mentions later on in this book. Those are gifts that the Spirit imparts to us. Here, I believe that what Paul is saying is that he desires to minister to the in the through the Word that they might receive some spiritual benefit or blessing such that they would be more established or strengthened in their faith. And then as though he also corrects himself he clarifies that is rather that we may be mutually encourage by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
What Paul recognises here is the power of gathering together. When we gather it is not only to receive a spiritual blessing but also to impart spiritual blessings to others. That’s why it so important that we gather together.