Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Do We Expect God To Answer?

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. -- Acts 12:5

One of the highlights of our Sunday small group and our Women’s Bible Study group is the prayer time. Every person has an opportunity to offer praises and prayer concerns. And then we pray.

There’s something so special about hearing someone lift your name, your concern, up to God. There’s something so empowering in that. And there’s something so joyful about thanking God for answered prayers. That communion brings us closer as a group and as God’s people.

Peter was in prison and the church -- God’s people -- prayed for him. Just as we pray for those around us. We are forever asking God our Father for His touch in our lives and the lives of those whom we love. We beg for healing. We ask for mercy. We seek peace in the middle of a storm.

But do we really expect Him to answer? We hope He does. We pray for that. But do we really expect healing? Do we really expect peace? Do we really expect God Almighty to get involved in our own little mess?

In this story, an angel came to Peter while he was in prison and let him out of the prison. They passed guards and went through an iron gate that “opened for them by itself.” Then the angel left Peter and he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.

Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl 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 knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

-- Acts 12:13-16

They no doubt asked God to spare Peter’s life. They likely begged Jesus to release Peter from his prison cell. And yet they never expected Peter to show up on their doorstep, even as they had gathered to pray for him.

Isn’t that like us? We expect God to hear us and answer our prayers. And yet when He does we are astounded by it. Almost as though we never really expected Him to answer.

Our God is a God of miracles. He is a God of love and compassion and kindness. He welcomes His children -- that would be me and you -- into His open arms. He hears us when we cry and He hears us when we laugh. He is present in our lives and He answers our prayers.