My heart's desire and prayer

Paul, the apostle, wrote a letter to the Jewish and Greek church community in Romans. This letter has become known through many years as Romans or Letter to the Romans. The letter is renound for its prefound and deep theology. Reading this letter has a way of capturing ones attention making one ponder a knew the misterious of God.

Our reading today kicks off by Paul communicating his desire. He links this desire to prayer directed to God. Prayer and desire are on the foreground in our reading because of Paul’s deep conviction that salvation is vital.

One can understand were Paul is comming from if we have a person that we truly love. When you love someone you want the best for that person and also you are willing to give from yourself to help and support.

As we have a wee baby, I find myself having the desire to guide and protect her. From the first day after her birth we created to the best of our ability the environment for her to florish.

It becomes very difficult if we start to realise that a loved one is losing the way. It can become very difficult when a person close to us is not florishing. Strong feeling can be disorientating when realising a loved-one is making choses that is leading to hell. The likelyhood can be for you as parent or friend to consider intervining. In other words, considering stopping or making your loved one aware of the dangerous ahead.

I remember our Profesor at University always jokenly said that he is a profet because he can predict that certain behaviour will lead to a certain out come. The point that he was trying to make was: If you steal you will go to prison. If you do not budget you will become poor. If you do not teach your child manners the child will not know what is appropreate.

When you see a loved one going the direction of destruction appropreate intervention can be live saving.

Paul uses the Greek words eudokía and déomai to communicate the need for salvation. These words are translated as “the will of the heart” and “to ask”. By uttering these words it makes Paul part of the great Old Testament Tradition where prominant leaders interseded for the Israelites. The leaders prayed on behalve of the people and the people approached the leaders asking for prayes. Paul is interceding bringing his desires to God in prayer asking sincerly for salvation to the Jews and the gentles.

This higlights the importance of acknowledging our own desires but more importantly praying to God. Or in other words interceding on behalve of other in prayer. The reason for Paul’s “will” and “prayer” is so that salvation becomes possible. The salvation that Paul is stearing us to is a deep confiction that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. The human condition can steer us in all types of direction, it is for this reason Paul is intervening making us consider the Gospel. The Gospel is faith in Christ. “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

There can be circumstances that convice us to intercede because of our love for another. There can be situations that strongly suggest the importance of praying for that person or situation. Paul in the Romans letter acknowledge his inner conviction and he brings his prayes to God surely making the first readers and also us today to considerus consider faith, salvation and justification through our LOrd Jesus. It is the same Christ that has came down that we may have love. Amen.