Epistles – Romans 15 – 16

Yeah!  We have come to the end of another book today!

After today, for those faithful readers, we would have only 64 more books to go!

Bible Passage:  Romans 15 – 16

Two passages stood out for me today:

Romans 15:4

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

The Scriptures we are reading are for our learning.

Did the Words of God speak to you when you read?  Do you see the trials and triumphs of those for love and fear God?  Are you more conscious of areas in your life that you are short of God’s glory?

Indeed… through reading the Scriptures daily, I can truly appreciate this verse.

The Bible is indeed God’s inspired Word and through it, we indeed have hope in this life and more importantly, the life to come.

Romans 15:30

“Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,”

“I covet your prayers!”

Hmm… that was the first time I heard the word “covet” being used in this manner.  But here was our trainee preacher, Bro Tse Loong, asking us to also pray for him and the work that is to be done.

But looking at this verse now – I see that Paul was the same.

“I beg you…”

We often think it should be the other way round … that people like Paul and our preachers should be praying for us –  the believers.  They don’t need our prayers.  We need their prayers instead.  And we neglect to pray for them.

But today is as good as any day for a reminder.

Preachers need us to pray together with them.  They need us to pray for them.

There are so many areas where we can pray for them.   The Bible tells us to pray that the door of the gospel may be opened for them.  We are told to pray for their safety and that their service may be found to be acceptable (15:31).

So have you included them in your prayers?

Some current prayers for workers of God include:

• Our trainee preacher helping out in the Bible courses in Myanmar
• The Preachers & Brothers who are in East and West Africa, including the brothers and sisters there
• Our two other trainee preachers undergoing their training right now

They covet our prayers.  Let’s do our part.

Some of you liked the cartoons of Romans the last time…. so I thought I’d end today by sharing with you some other cartoons I found about it.  They have nothing to do with today’s passage but sometimes these cartoon just delivers the message to you in a way that many paragraphs of text can never do…