Acts 12.14-15 NLT




When she recognised Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!” “You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”
What do you expect to happen when you pray? Does it occur to you that God might dramatically and immediately answer your prayer? Clearly, that thought hadn’t occurred to this fervent group of prayers! Peter, the leader of the church, had been imprisoned by King Herod and the church was understandably scared. It is not surprising that they met together for a time of worship and you can imagine their impassioned prayers for Peter’s release. But when Peter turned up at their front door, they were quite sure that it couldn’t possibly have happened. Rhoda, the servant girl, who had answered his knock at the door, clearly fully grasped the situation and was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the door!! You couldn’t make it up! When she informed the praying friends that Peter was at the door
they were, at first, incredibly rude to her, suggesting that she must have taken leave of her senses. And when she insisted that it really was Peter, they were so convinced that it couldn’t have happened that they had to find a spiritual explanation of how it appeared to gullible Rhoda that it was him. They suggested that it must be an angel. Poor old Peter had to keep bashing at the door until they finally gave in and let him in. We read that they were astonished! The embarrassment of that moment must have lived with them for the rest of their lives. Much as they loved the Lord, they couldn’t bring themselves to believe that he might answer their prayers.




When we pray, we are opening our lives to God and we need to be ready for any response. He always hears our prayers and that should give us confidence as we ask him to do things. We only ever understand a tiny part of the situation and so we should never tell God what to do. As we pray we are showing God our willingness to co-operate with whatever he chooses to do, however amazing and miraculous.




QUESTION: How confident are you that God will answer your prayers?
PRAYER: Loving God, help my confidence in you to grow as I pray. Amen

Released on 21 Aug 2021