“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong”
Why does Paul what to visit the believers in Rome? He wants to give them something. Paul wants to be available; he is interested in making them strong. Is this Paul’s vanity? He has never met these people. No, If it were vanity the gift would be Paul’s visit alone but the gift is a spiritual one. Paul is interested in giving them a gift from God.
Paul longs to see them. A longing comes from a please deeper place than a want. Longings keep us up at night, they make us restless. Paul is a man consumed in prayer that God might will for him to visit these believers, this is longing. What do you long for? When was the last time you were really consumed with the needs of someone else? I know that more me the reality is that I am not often consumed with anyone but me.
Paul’s interest in these strangers welling being is such, that it is not enough for him to simply pray for God to strengthen them by sending someone to them. He offers himself as an answer to his own prayers. When we pray for others are we thinking about how we can be involved in the answer to that prayer? I honestly will often pray for someone’s need then go on and not giving it another thought much less ask God to use me in the answer.
We should long to see others (even strangers!) strengthened by God and we should offer ourselves as participants in God’s response. What we bring and everything we have comes from God. So it should come as little surprise that He might desire to use us to answer our prayers for others. When I pray I want to be asking God how he wishes use me to answer that prayer.
Tye Parks 
Tye, I’m not sure how you got from Paul’s quote to the fact that we too seldom offer ourselves as part of the outcomes we pray for–but I like that you did!!
I note that Paul’s desire was not to fix any problems these folks had, but to share with them a spiritual outlook that would give them the strength to deal with it themselves. I think this is the secret to solving the problem you mention about our failure to involve ourselves in the solutions we pray for.
If Paul was looking at the challenges that these people faced and thought that he needed to go there and fix things, he probably would have seen that it was beyond his powers and turned it over to God in prayer–just as I did when I was praying for “good” outcomes to replace “bad” ones.
By contrast, Paul has found a source of strength and peace that needs not change when circumstances change. He has realized that he doesn’t need to ask God to remove his persecutors, his ailments, or his life challenges–so why would he pray for such things for others? Instead, he offers them the gift that keeps on giving–“some spiritual gift to make you strong.”
Thank you, Tye, for the stimulus to make me think about this in a way I had not experienced before.
Your friend,
Jim A.