"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me" (Rom. 15:30).
Paul makes an appeal to believers, asking that they intercede in prayer to God on his behalf. When he makes this appeal he makes it by our Lord Jesus and the love of the Spirit. Why does Paul make his appeal for prayer in this way? His appeal for prayer is by Jesus because it's through Him and for His glory that we have access to God. We don't have access to God because of our righteousness, but by the blood that Jesus shed for our redemption we can come boldly before God's throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Secondly, Paul appealed to the brethren to pray from him by the love of the Spirit." This could mean that Paul was appealing to the love that the Holy Spirit produces in the hearts of the brethren to motivate them to pray for him. In other words he's asking that his brethren fulfill his earnest appeal through the love that they have for him through the Holy Spirit.
It's been said that our greatest asset is our access to God. I believe that Paul would say Amen to that statement. I believe that Paul would also say that one of the greatest acts of love that you can bestow on others is to pray for them. A. J. Gordon said, "You can do more than pray, but you can't do more than pray until you have prayed." Unless you are God's answer to someones prayer you can demonstrate no greater act of love than to pray for that someone that God had laid on your heart. God moves in answer to prayer.
The great Apostle Paul was mightily used of God because he did not trust in his strength but in the love and power of the Spirit. Even in how he appealed to others to pray for him, his reliance and dependence upon the Lord Jesus and the love of the Spirit is clearly apparent. Prayer is our declaration of dependence. I appeal to you by the Lord Jesus and by the love of the Spirit that you pray to God on my behalf and for each other.
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