Romans Part 6: RESPONSESample

Striving Together

In the earliest parts of my faith walk, I did not understand why sharing prayer requests was important. “Why would people care about my suffering?” From my understanding, God knew exactly what I needed, and my responsibility was to ask. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I realized the significance of praying together, sharing our hurts, desires, and needs with not only God but with the community he has made us a part of. The Bible talks about this in James:

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:13-16 ESV

We tend to forget that in the same way we struggle day in and day out, Paul truly suffered more than some of us can imagine. There were even times when Paul, who we view as a strong and courageous man, was spiritually burdened and felt heavy. Paul is a good example of what we should do when facing discouragement or persecution; he asked the Roman believers to “strive together with me.” When Paul said “Strive together with me” what did he mean?

In ancient Greek strive together is ‘sunagonizomai’ – literally meaning, “agonize together.” The gospels recount Jesus using the same root word when in the garden of Gethsemane, asking the disciples to pray with Him as He awaited His crucifixion. While in the garden, the disciples failed, falling asleep, and letting Jesus agonize in prayer alone. We, however, through these examples, know that we should be “striving together.” So, let's strive together as we Go and Grow with Jesus.

-Caitlin Denny