Romans 1:10

always  in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.

In this part of his introductory address to the church at Rome, Paul expresses is great desire to come to meet them; however, he recognizes the limitation of his own desire to God's will. Previously he had wanted to preach and evangelize Asia. I am fairly certain that is referring to Asia-Minor (modern day Turkey). However according to Acts 16:6-7, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to." However Jesus prevented Paul from going to Asia-Minor is entirely a matter of speculation but it also serves to suggest an example of God saying no to an earnest prayer request. When Paul had a rather bothersome "thorn in his side because he may have gotten a sneak-peak at heaven, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me -to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that might leave me. And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" (2nd Corinthians 16:7-9a emphasis mine). You can just imagine how hard Paul's life mush have been: stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, always afraid of danger in the city and in the wilderness; and he has to contend with a tormenting messenger from Satan? I think you or I would have begged God more than three times to get rid of that mess. Yet Paul went on to say, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2nd Corinthians 9b). Once again, even though Paul may have greatly desired to visit the church at Rome, God had thoroughly trained him to wait on His timing; like James 4:14a,15 says "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow...Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" In the present day, we should carefully look for God's timing before we set out in any task if we want to be successful.
 
Now I would always try to avoid as much eisegesis (the practice of putting your own meaning on the text) as possible the main reason being conformation bias. With too much eisegesis, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to. That is one of the chief aims of this blog: to use as much exegesis (drawing out meaning from the text as opposed to putting meaning on the text) in the hermeneutics (interpretation of the Bible) as possible. I hope we all learned something this week and I will see everyone next week.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
But to Your name give glory.
Because of your lovingkindness,
Because of your truth.