I've been asking the church to pray constantly for the five areas of concern in our congregation--Worship, Youth, Sunday School, Administration, and Facility. As I mentioned last month, I have doubts about how often Christians really DO pray--actually say words to God--when they say they do as opposed to merely nodding in agreement at prayer requests so as to be polite and encouraging. To encourage you to actually pray, I'd like you to consider the early church's experience in praying for the apostle Peter when he was imprisoned and slated for execution (Acts 12:1-19). It's a fascinating passage, and a humorous one, too.

Herod had already executed James, the brother of John, and intended to do away with Peter because he saw how it pleased the crowd when he killed James; but he wanted to wait until after Passover to do it (12:1-4). In verse 5 we are told, "Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church." Some versions have the adverbial form "constantly," while the correct form is "constant." In either case, the word is composed of two roots which mean "stretched out," meaning, intense, assiduous, and fervent. They had already lost one leader and were about the lose another, so they felt the heat and prayed fervently, with a sense of urgency, together. Peter, bound in chains was sound asleep (at rest in the Lord!) between two guards (v. 6; he may have been relying on Jesus' word to him as recorded in John 21:18--"when you are old").

In verses 7-11 we are told of how God sent an angel to deliver Peter. The angel had to roust Peter from his deep sleep--had to strike him physically to awaken him. His chains merely dropped off, the guards were put into a deep slumber, and the angel led him out through a gate which opened "of its own accord" (the Greek word here is automate, which should look familiar to 20th Century Americans!). When Peter was fully awake--he thought he was dreaming!--he went to the house where the church was praying for him (v. 12). He knocked at the door and a young woman named "Rhoda" came to answer, who for her excitement at recognizing Peter's voice failed to open the gate to let him come in! (vv. 13-14) She went in and told the assembled prayer warriors that Peter was standing outside the door at that very moment, and they dismissed her as being emotionally overwrought, suggesting that it was rather Peter's angel who had appeared at the door (v. 15).

What's amazing is that they weren't in an expectant frame of mind, they weren't looking for God to actually answer their prayers; they scoffed at the possibility when it was announced to them. They were more willing to believe an angel had appeared than that God had heard their petitions. They weren't like Elijah, who prayed seven times for rain and looked up after each effort to see if the answer had begun to come yet (I Kings 18:41-44). We're like that church, aren't we? We pray, and that's commendable, but I wonder how much WE actually expect to see our invisible prayers cause God to affect the visible world about us in reply. Well, Rhoda recovered from her excitement and let Peter in, and the church recovered from its unbelief as Peter entered their midst and told them what had happened--as a result of their fervent, united prayers (vv. 16-19). May we learn from their timidity in their corporate prayers; may we believe that our fervent prayers will change things; may we expect that knock at the door and open it joyfully to welcome God's answers! -Tim