#4.

God uses our prayers to advance His purposes

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!

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