making request if, by any means, now at length I shall be blessed by the will of God to come to you.
Truth to Learn
Paul’s singular focus in life was serving God.
Behind the Words
The Greek word translated “making request” is deomai. This appears to be a middle voice (subject acting upon himself) of the word deō, meaning “to bind.” In that sense, therefore, it indicates a person being personally bound up. It is interpreted by most Greek scholars to imply a lack for oneself and, therefore, is often translated as “to make a request for one’s own needs.” Therefore, the translation “making request” makes a lot of sense.
Meaning Explained
Today’s verse is a continuation of yesterday’s verse. You really need to read the last phrase of verse 9 along with verse 10, thus:
that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by any means, now at length I shall be blessed by the will of God to come to you.
As we mentioned in our study of the previous verse, Paul is a real prayer warrior. We don’t know if Paul regularly prayed at a particular time of the day (every morning or every evening) of if he simply prayed all day long. Certainly, he had to take some time to study the Old Testament scriptures, the writings of other Apostles, and he had to take time to prepare the marvelous messages that he preached. It is entirely possible, however, that whenever he was not specifically engaged in some other spiritual activity, Paul was praying, and he always prayed for the Roman Christians.
One of his constant prayers regarding the Christians in Rome was,
making request if, by any means, now at length I shall be blessed by the will of God to come to you.
Paul had never been to Rome, therefore he asked God to fulfill that lacking which he felt. He really wanted to see and meet the Christians in Rome, possibly because of the reputation they had regarding their faith. More likely, as he says in the next verse, it was because he had further teaching that he wanted to impart to them. Personally, I would love to go to Rome, to see all the historical places, but that’s not what was on Paul’s heart. His heart was for the believers in Rome. Once again, I am humbled by his singleness of purpose. Paul was so sold out to God that serving Him was all he cared about.
As we learn in the book of Acts, God answered Paul’s prayer, and he finally got to see Rome approximately three years after writing this letter. However, it surely wasn’t in the manner that Paul expected, for he arrived in chains. In spite of the ignominy of Paul’s condition, however, many Roman Christians came out and walked the last day or two of the trip with Paul as they welcomed him with honor into their city.
Application
Is your devotion to God and your desire to serve Him so strong that you can think of nothing else? Or is your desire for everything else so strong that you seldom think about serving Him?
That’s something that we all need to pray about … without ceasing!
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2017 Will Krause. All rights reserved