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Romans 1:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Paul was a prayer warrior and prayed for others constantly.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word \u201cwitness<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word martus<\/span><\/em> from which we get our English word \u201cmartyr.\u201d The Greek word means \u201cone who has information or knowledge of something, and therefore, one who can give information, bring to light, or confirm something.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cServe<\/span>\u201d is the translation of latreu\u014d<\/span><\/em>, the basic meaning of which is \u201cto minister.\u201d Hence, Paul\u2019s service is really a ministry performed for God.<\/span><\/p>\n The word \u201cwith<\/span>\u201d is a translation from en<\/span><\/em>, which is a preposition which denotes position and, by implication, instrumentality. Therefore, a more natural translation would be \u201cin<\/span>.\u201d Paul is saying that he serves God in his spirit; in other words, he is claiming that this is a spiritual service over and above a physical service.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWithout ceasing\u201d is from adialeiptos<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201ccontinually or without omission.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This verse tells us that Paul prayed constantly for the Roman believers. He starts out by saying, \u201cFor God is my witness<\/span>.\u201d Paul is making a very strong appeal that the following statement is, indeed, true. He calls on the witness of Him who has knowledge of all things, God himself. Obviously the readers of this letter can\u2019t check out the facts of his statement by asking God, but that\u2019s not the point. The point is that Paul does not swear, since the Lord Jesus himself taught that swearing is wrong (see Matthew 5:33-37<\/span><\/strong>); rather, he appeals to a reliable witness.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul then states that he serves God in his spirit. He is saying that his service to God is not just on the surface but is with the very essence of his being, his spirit. Paul then explains that his service is in the gospel of Jesus Christ whom he describes as God\u2019s Son. <\/span><\/p>\n Finally, he tells the Roman Christians that he prays for them constantly. Paul was known for being a prayer warrior. He prayed a lot and a lot of his prayers were for churches, both those which he helped start and those he had never visited (like the Roman church). Evidence of Paul\u2019s prayer life is also found in Ephesians 1:15-16<\/span><\/strong>; Philippians 1:3-4<\/span><\/strong>; Colossians 1:3-4<\/span><\/strong>; and 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n How does your prayer life stack-up against Paul\u2019s? If you\u2019re like me, you feel woefully inadequate compared to him. Paul apparently had a daily routine that included considerable time in prayer, and it wasn\u2019t because he had nothing else to do. With everything we pack into our days, it seems silly that we can\u2019t even find 15 minutes each day to pray for ourselves and for others.<\/span><\/p>\n Why don\u2019t we do something about that?<\/span><\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, Truth to Learn Paul was a prayer warrior and prayed for others constantly. Behind the Words The word \u201cwitness\u201d is translated from the Greek […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[133,415,417,125],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-minister","tag-prayer","tag-unceasing","tag-witness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-hr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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