Scripture: Acts 12:5-17 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.
Devotion: What stands out to you from the Bible story that we read today? Perhaps it was the angel appearing to Peter. That is pretty miraculous. Maybe it was when the city gate opened by itself. Or the moment that stands out might be when the people thought it was the angel of Peter at the door. All of these things are noteworthy and speak to the miracle-working power of our God.
But what I don’t want us to miss is the first sentence of this passage of Scripture, “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5- emphasis mine). The church as a whole was actively praying and interceding for Peter. He had been thrown in prison and was likely awaiting his death. And the church never stopped praying.
I’ll be honest, when it comes to praying “earnestly” for the people in my life, I tend to fall a little short. I do my best to pray for others and especially for those in my life that don’t know Christ. But then in the mist of my prayer, I get distracted. Or I have a busy week, and I let it slide. But this story is such a great reminder of the power of prayer. When we fervently pray for others in our lives, we can see God at work.
It may not be as dramatic as a release from imprisonment (or who knows- it might be!), but we have the opportunity to cry out to God relentlessly and see what He can do. Let’s use this story of the church earnestly praying for one of their own as an encouragement to pray without ceasing for those in our own lives.
Reflect:
- Who or what can you intensely pray for? This can be someone who does not know Christ, someone who is in need of healing or help, something you are seeking in your own life, or even about a current issue in our world. Pray about whatever God is placing in your heart.