Paul prays. A lot. And what he says he prays for at the beginning of his magnificent letter to the Romans shapes the rest of it. He often gives prayers of thanks to God that there is a community living under the nose of Caesar whose allegiance belongs to another, greater King – Jesus. He prays a lot that he will be able to come to this community and deeply do life with them. And he often prays that he will be able to train them in such a way that they will mature so that they all (Paul included) will all be able to encourage one another in their loyalty to and worship of Jesus Christ.

We need this, too.