“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son — that I constantly mention you, always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

On rare occasions I have the opportunity to preach somewhere other than my church. When this happens, I don’t approach the message the same way as I do with the people I know and preach to every week. Instead, I try to stay more generalized in my focus and encouraging in my tone. No one wants to get scolded by a stranger. Paul had never visited the church in Rome. As a result, he didn’t approach them with quite the same familiarity as he did the church in Corinth that he had planted and spent nearly two years pastoring. Today, tomorrow, and Monday, let’s take a look at how Paul greeted these people he had never met.

One of the amazing things about the Scriptures being inspired by God is that, as Paul would point out in his second letter to Timothy, they are all useful for the purpose of advancing us in the direction of who He made us to be. God’s Spirit is present and active in the words of Scripture, meaning that every single part of them is capable of revealing truths about who He is and who He created us to be. He can use any part of them to challenge us to faith and growth in His character.

We get a great demonstration of this fact right here. These three verses are simply part of Paul’s greeting of the Roman church. Paul said as much in most of the letters we have of his in the Scriptures. This seems at first glance like one of those generic parts of the Scriptures we can just skip over. And yet if we are willing to look a little more closely and reflect just a little bit longer, a good challenge and some helpful insight come bubbling to the surface.

First, Paul tells the Roman believers that “the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.” Now, maybe that’s just something he said for the sake of saying it. But maybe, Paul really had heard about the faith of this church he hadn’t planted and had never visited. If this is the case – and we don’t really have good reason to assume otherwise – it makes me ask a question whose answer could be pretty transformative for any church. What would it take to have a world famous faith? What does a church have to do to have other people talking about how good and faithful it is?

Well, one thing would be to have a world famous pastor. There are some churches that people know all over the world because their pastors are Christian celebrities. Most of those churches range from large to exceedingly large. That isn’t an attainable reality for most churches, though, and doesn’t appear to have been the case for the church in Rome. As a case in point: we don’t have any idea who their pastor was. Maybe he was really famous across the world then, but we don’t know. It seems that if he had been, he’d have gotten mentioned somewhere in at least Paul’s letters.

Another way this might happen is that the church has been so active in sending missionaries around the world to proclaim and advance the Gospel that it has become known around the world. This doesn’t mean that every single person has heard of the church, but rather that there are people in lots and lots of places who know of it because of its broad impact. I heard an interview with one pastor who noted that his church has actively sent and supported missionaries in almost every nation of the world. That’ll result in a faith that is reported in all the world.

A third way could be that the church is so active and successful in making disciples right where it is that other churches have heard about it and are seeking to learn how they are doing what they are doing. Successful churches – and I’m talking about success in kingdom terms – tend to attract attention to themselves and interest in their method and approaches to Gospel ministry. This isn’t something to seek for its own sake, but it will often be the result of great and consistent faithfulness over many years.

Ultimately, I don’t have a concise or bullet-pointed answer to that question, but it is one for each individual church to ponder all the same. What would it take for us to have a world famous faith? As you reflect with your church on a set of possible answers to that question (answers that are consistent with the Scriptures, of course), those are probably things you want to get on pursuing together to God’s glory, your joy, and the advance of His kingdom.

One more thing in these verses. In vv. 9-10, Paul talks about the fact that he had prayed for quite some time to be able to come and visit the church in Rome. To date, though, he hadn’t been able to do that. Indeed, Paul’s desire to go to Rome is something he mentions in more than one of his letters. We know from the ending of Acts that he was on his way there. Church tradition holds that he did indeed make it there, from there visited Spain to achieve his goal of reaching what was then thought to be the uttermost ends of the earth, and came back to Rome where he eventually died. His prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, and maybe 2 Timothy) were all written from Rome so far as we know.

At the point he wrote this letter, though, Paul had never been there. In spite of praying diligently for it. This is a good reminder of an important spiritual point. Sometimes we pray for things that God doesn’t give us. This doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t good prayers to pray. It doesn’t necessarily mean God doesn’t want us to have them. It could simply mean that the timing on them isn’t right yet. It could also mean that while the object of our prayer is a good thing, God has other plans for us. Prayer, even faithful prayer in Jesus’ name, is always subject to His will.

God is not a vending machine. We don’t get what we want simply because we have asked for it really sincerely. God in His perfect wisdom knows what is best for us. He knows what His plans for us are. He’s always going to do the right thing for us at the right time if we are willing to follow Him to receiving it.

Also, the point of prayer is not to get what we want from God. The point of prayer is to build and invest in a relationship with God. If He happens to answer some of our prayers positively by providing for us the thing we have asked for, all the better, but that’s neither the point nor the goal. If it is, you’re not thinking about prayer in terms that will make it a helpful and fulfilling discipline for you. When your goal is to grow and strengthen your relationship with God, then it will function for you as God designed. When that is your goal, getting things from God will always be secondary and “unanswered prayers” won’t bother you all that much. Instead, you’ll be seeking Him first and foremost. When you’ve achieved that, anything else that comes is just bonus.

As we continue into this new year, let’s aim to have a famous faith because of our commitment to advancing God’s kingdom using the means He has provided, and let’s aim to pray more like Paul where the goal is God in Christ through the Spirit and everything else is extra. This will lead to a very happy new year indeed.