Striving Prayer
by
Rocky Fleming
“I 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” (Romans 15:30 ESV)
Striving is an interesting word for the Apostle Paul to use for prayer. It caught my attention when I first read
it, and it made me want to dig a little further to understand what I am being encouraged to do in prayer.
From a historical standpoint when Paul wrote this passage, he was writing to the Christian Church in Rome.
He was about to travel from Corinth to Jerusalem to take a gift from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia
to the needful saints in Jerusalem. Afterwards, he planned to travel to Rome on his way to Spain. This letter
in Romans mentioned those facts. The reason Paul asked the Church in Rome to “strive” with him in prayer
would appear because his life was at stake, and it was risky going back to Jerusalem. Going back to
Jerusalem for Paul would be like someone who was in a witness protection program going into the backyard
of a person who had a contract on his life. Paul knew it was a serious risk he was taking and he needed some
serious prayer on his behalf because of it. But all prayer should be serious shouldn’t it?
Why do our prayers often times become less serious and rote and distraction replace it? I think it is because
we rarely get really serious about prayer until there is a serious threat to us. This makes us attentive and
focused. Paul understood the benefits of prayer, but not just a token prayer offered up on his behalf. He was
not asking that they remember him at the dinner table with an, “Oh yeah Lord, I almost forgot. Bless Paul.”
He was asking that he not be an afterthought, but a central thought in their prayer for him. He put himself
and his need as a reason for striving together in their prayer. But, I don’t think it was because he was afraid
of dying, or that he was even worried that God’s will for his life would somehow be diverted. He had
already described himself as a dead man walking. So it wasn’t because he was afraid to go, or even die in
Jerusalem. I think the truth is he coveted their prayers for their benefit as much as for his own. I think Paul
was a disciple maker along with being a church planter, and he was “striving” for something needed for the
Church in Rome. He wanted them to learn something about how true prayer is offered, and he was willing to
make himself an object of need for the lesson. Like many Christians and churches in America today, I’m
sure the Church in Rome could have become lazy in their prayer life as well. There were several things that
could have been hindering their prayers, and a hindered prayer will not be an answered prayer. This is where
I began to understand why Paul used the word “strive.”
When Paul used the word strive with the Romans, they very well would have connected it with an athletic
contest of that day such as wrestling. The word strive implies intensity, agony, or great effort. It is an effort
to be strong, to be effective, to be heard with our prayers. Now some would ask, “Does this kind of prayer
change the heart of God? Will He go against what He thinks is best, and go with what we request because
we know better than He, or because we ask? Is God so uninformed that He needs information from us to
know how to focus His great power on a need He doesn’t see or consider?” Let me give you the quick
answer to these questions: No, No and No. God doesn’t need our prayers to know what is best for us, or to
get information from us on what to do. We need Him, and prayer connects us to Him to find His presence
and assurance in our life. We need information from Him, and prayer connects us to Him where we find that
information. We need His strength, His protection, His purpose, and prayer connects us to Him where these
things are found. But, one of the most important things we need to know about our prayers is that we can be
our own worst enemy for seeing them answered if we have hindrances in the way. We must “strive” to
break through those hindrances by tearing them down. We wrestle less with the difficulties God allows in
our life, and more with our mindset to be independent of God and complain about the difficulties. We must
strive against the flesh and our flesh tendencies to see things God’s way.
I mentioned how the Romans might have thought of a wrestling contest when Paul mentioned strive. When I
read the words, “strive together,” as Paul used them, I think of football. Football is a team sport. When a
team strives together, it is stronger and more successful than if there are 11 men doing their own thing as
individuals. In fact, most of the time, 11 men working in unison as a team can beat better athletes who are
not working as a team. I think Paul would agree with the unified prayer, and as a disciple maker, he would
have wanted the Church in Rome to understand that a great hindrance for a church’s prayer life is disunity,
discord and discouragement. There is also danger for a church if this is happening. I cannot help but
connect how many churches have closed their doors in America and are no longer a viable organism as God
created them to be. I would strongly suggest that it was the result of disunity, discord and discouragement,
and a prayer life neglected and debilitated, because they did not strive together that caused their demise.
How do we break away from these things that debilitate our prayers? We wrestle with them. We take them
on. We compete against them. We overcome them by striving together in one heart and one purpose to
defeat these hindrances. Paul knew that the Church in Rome, and their prayers on his behalf would be
hindered if they were not unified and were obstructed. It was a serious threat to him, but a greater threat to
the Church itself. You see the Church in Rome would experience some of the worst persecution Christians
in history have faced only a few years after Paul wrote this letter. I believe Paul was being used by God to
prepare the Church in Rome for this persecution by giving them a battle plan, and at the core of this plan was
effective, fervent, unified, striving together prayer.
Today, this Country is in trouble. All you have to do is look at our governmental dysfunctionality, our
economic woes, and the social disunity this Country struggles with to be convinced. We have no real plan to
lead us out of this trouble. Sure, it would help to have leaders in office who know what to do, know how to
lead, and who will work together. To even agree on a plan by these politicians would be a great help. Like
Paul indicated about the Church, the need of our Government and the people of America is to strive together
to fix our broken Country. But far greater than this need in our Country is the need that the Church in
America strives together. We are a nation within a nation and the Apostle Peter said it best:
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own; that you should
show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” 1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)
Men, did you get those words? We are a holy nation, and as God’s holy nation within America, the best
thing we can do for our Country is to be unified in our love for each other as the Church, and to have mutual
purpose, with unhindered prayers that are empowered by our unity. We must team up. We must take on the
Enemy. We must strive together. If we do this, I believe God will heal our land, or at least prepare us for
what lies ahead. It is a serious, serious time, and it is time to hit our knees. Will you join with me?