8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. 9 God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
13 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles.14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike.15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.
Terrie's Comments:
It is refreshing to be encouraged by others who are strong in their faith and are living it out everyday... It is also good to be an encouragement to others. We are meant to bear spiritual fruit. We are to be spreading the gospel deliberately and to be excited and with a great sense of obligation to others. If we don't share what we know, those in our world may never find out. Think about that for a bit.
Paul saw himself as an evangelist. It is clear that he saw the local body of believers as those who would support and help to disciple those who he preached the Good News to.
I hope that this blog, in some small way, is a place where we can meet together and spur one another on to whatever God has called each of us to do. May it always be a delight and a joy to meet online and in person with those who encourage us in our faith.
I know Tori and I thank God for all of you who choose to be a part of this journey with us!
Tori's Comments:
I'm really curious as to which spiritual gift he means.
I can't even fathom how their faith was so strong that news of it was spreading. I mean, they must be doing some amazing things!
Right now I've been trying to pray for other people rather than solely myself. I find that when you pray for someone enough, it becomes hard not to love them after all of the thought you've put into that person's well-being. I could be generalizing, but it is a method of working through my meager frustrations that works pretty well for me.
Vs. 12 is probably the verse that sticks out the most for me. It shows a beautiful picture of the church, united because we all point to the cross. It makes me wonder whether I make it a goal to encourage my friends' faith enough. (The answer is no, I do not. It does not take much reflection for that to be clear :) ) It is definitely something for me to work on!
Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!
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Please keep all comments respectful. We want to remember that each of us is at a different place in our walk with God. This is a place for us to share openly about what has been revealed to us as we open up Gods word and to learn from others. Please take every opportunity possible to build each other up in love :-)