“…But the Church Was Earnestly Praying to God for Him”

Exodus 39; Exodus 40; Psalm 15; Acts 12
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Scripture

Acts 12

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
6 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. 7 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.
8 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. 9 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. 10 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.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating."
12 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. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"
15 "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 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 brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.

Observation

I love this story! Peter has been arrested and we find the church earnestly praying for him. God sends an Angel and the Angel walks Peter right out of that prison right past the prison guards, right through unlocked prison doors. Peter thinks at first that he is dreaming then it dawns on him that it is no dream.

God responded to the prayers of his church. I think it is funny that when Peter knocked on the door of the house of Mary that they couldn’t believe it was Peter even though they were inside the house praying for his release.

We prayed at church a few weeks back for God to heal one of our men that had a mass at the base of his brain. I had the man come forward and I asked everyone in the church that could come forward to come and lay hands on him. We prayed and when he went back to the doctor the doctor couldn’t find the mass. It was gone. My immediate response was, “no way!.” Wow! What an awesome God we serve!

God doesn’t always heal people when we pray for them neither does he rescue everyone from prison like He did for Peter. I am sure that the church earnestly prayed for James when he was arrested just like they did for Peter, but James was executed by Herod with a sword. He was not set free! God had a different plan for the life of James.

I love to see God heal. I love to see God set people free from hurts, hang ups, and habits. My heart is heavy today over people close to me that continue to live bound by their addictions and ungodly living. I continue to pray that God will set them free.


Application

I will continue to pray for those close to me that are living ungodly lives and are imprisoned by their hurts, hang ups, and destructive habits.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are a God that loves to set people free. Father, I want to see more people set free from their ungodly way of living. The devil has them in his grasp and I pray that you snatch them away from him. Thank you for those in our church that lead our Celebrate Recovery ministry. Give them strength today. Give them your heart for the people you have brought into this ministry. Help me to love those that aren’t lovely. Help me to see past their ungodly lifestyles to see them as you see them. I pray for them today. Set them free. Amen.


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