Unanswered prayer

Today's Bible study from Romans 15 brought me to one of Paul's prayers that went unanswered: In verse 31, he asks the believers in Rome to pray that he "may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea...." Now, it could be argued that he was rescued from their plot to assassinate him. True. But when he dictated these words for Tertius (his scribe) to pen, I strongly suspect that he had in mind that God would allow the visit to Jerusalem to go smoothly, Paul to get out of there free to visit Rome and go on to Spain. The entire context of Romans 15:14-33 suggests this expectation or prayer. Clearly, from the events recorded in Acts, God had other plans in mind.

Why did Paul make this request? Perhaps because he had already heard the warnings from prophets in the church saying that his visit to Jerusalem would lead to his being bound over to the authorities. The warning is given at least twice in Acts. If he sent this letter before getting these warnings, then perhaps God had already started alerting Paul's spirit that something undesirable would befall him in Jerusalem. In either case, he had sensed God's message that something negative would happen there. Still he asked the church to pray that he would be rescued from the unbelievers there.

I'm not throwing stones at Paul. I've been there too: Sensing that God wants to go a certain way but praying that God would change his mind.

Have you been there?