Always in my prayers ...

Tuesday, August 23, 2016. We are reading Romans, the letter of the apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome. He is taking us into his reasoning, his longing, his desires and also into his problems with the church life of the first decades after the resurrection of Christ. It is a letter which from the very beginning has been identified as important basis and important ground building document for the faith and life of the people of Jesus.

Without Ceasing …

Paul is talking to the Christians in Rome. He is longing to see them. He is longing to have community with them “in the spirit”. Here, he talks about very basic and important experiences of a Christian. When you follow Jesus, his holy spirit enters your life. He is there, and “in the spirit” you are connected to each other person which has a sincere faith as well.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For

I long to see you

, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well 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 I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (from Romans 1)

Strengthen You …

We need to be strengthened in faith. As Christians we are in the middle of a weird world, which has lost the faithfulness and love of the eternal God. But in Christ we rediscover this faithfulness and love, and we are linked to his spirit, which is full of encouragement, full of support and truth and deep love!

Paul is busy. It is interesting to hear. He is emotionally involved with the Christians in Rome, but he could not travel to them so far, since his tasks to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles has been more important. Yet, his longing and his prayers are with these people! We need to see the difficulties in this, that the world is full of challenges, life in faith does not mean that everything would be sunny and easy all the time!

When Paul talks about “harvest”, he means to bring people to faith. Harvest has been an image for preaching the Gospel in a way that individuals come to the decision to follow Christ. Preaching has this Goal! And of course, learning to live in and with Christ is linked to it and of large importance as well. Paul himself writes many letters to serve this second purpose: to teach and to strengthen, to accompany and to walk in faith together. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts