Romans 15:30–32 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 saints; 32 so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
Everything that comes to pass takes places according to God's unchangeable decree. So when God answers our prayers and does for us the very things we ask, it follows that we have been used as instruments in forwarding His purposes! It is not that our prayers change God's plans - but that in a wonderful way He uses them as a powerful means to accomplish them. From all eternity (if we may speak in that way) He has woven the prayers of His people into His unchangeable plans as one means by which He will bring them to pass!
Our text is a wonderful illustration of this. Paul urges his readers to strive together with him in their prayers to God for him. It is as though he sees them alongside him in the battle lines, fighting with him to ensure the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom.
Do we ever see ourselves in this way when we pray? Suppose we come to the prayer meeting and we wrestle in prayer for the needs of a missionary on the other side of the world. Do we realize that we have just been striving together with them and joined our prayers with theirs, so that the Lord would grant success in their labors for the glory of His name? When we hear of a Christian college student or perhaps a new recruit to the armed forces who is far away from home and facing new and difficult situations, do we understand that in praying for them, we are striving alongside them so that they might not be crushed by our common Enemy?
In other words, in our prayers we enter into the situations we pray for (in a spiritual sense) and we struggle alongside our brothers and sisters (or we struggle against the enemies of God) who are actually in those situations. God (who put the desire to pray in us and laid the subject for prayer upon our hearts) has already woven our prayers into the outworking of his plans for His glory! How exciting is this! Can we think of anything more powerful and effective that we can do to forward God's plans and purposes than to pray?
It follows, depending on how much or how little we pray, that we can play a larger or a smaller part in the advancement of God's kingdom, and in striving together with our brothers and sisters that God might be glorified in them. Let's purpose to play a larger and larger part as time goes by!