5×5×5 Bible Plan
Read: Acts 12
Meditation: Acts 12:16
Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
Shift Your Focus… I hope you see the humor in what is an otherwise somber story. James, the brother of John, has been executed. Now Peter has been imprisoned and it is his head that is on the chopping block. The megalomaniac King Herod is the culprit, and he knows that killing Peter will gain him the support of the Jewish leaders. In reality, there is nothing funny about this situation. This is as serious as a heart attack, especially for Peter.
But God decides to have a little fun in the midst of all this drama. He sends his angel to deliver Peter from prison, yet the night before his likely execution, amazingly Peter is sound asleep. He is in such a deep slumber that the angel has to whack him on the side to wake him up and guide him by the hand like a little kid past the guards and out the gate. Even then, Peter assumes he is having a dream.
Once outside the prison gates, Peter realizes that he has become answered prayer. So he goes to the home where the church was “earnestly praying” for his deliverance. When the servant girl, Rhoda, opens the door and sees Peter, she is so excited that answered prayer is standing right there in front of her she forgets to let him in. He continues to stand out on the street, a fugitive on the lam from justice, waiting for a church that has been praying for his release to see that their prayers have been answered.
When Rhoda tries to explain that answered prayer is knocking at the door, the believers think she has lost her mind. They disbelieve the very answer they have been earnestly and constantly praying for. Finally, they hear Peter pounding at the door and let him in. And they were astonished that God had actually answered their prayers.
You have probably done that, too! I sure have. There are things for which we earnestly pray, yet deep in our hearts are convinced we will never see the answer. I am glad that at times God’s mercifully overrides our low expectations and sends answered prayer to knock on our door.
Are your prayers wrapped in low expectations? You pray, but you don’t really believe God will answer with a provision of healing for your broken body or the salvation of a wayward child or deliverance from a dark habit or the financial miracle you desperately need or a spiritual breakthrough into a greater abundance of God’s grace. Unwrap those requests, remove your low expectations, and listen up—you may just hear some answered prayer knocking on your door today.
Ask boldly, expect greatly and pray unceasingly—God still answers prayer!
“Not failure, but low aim, is crime.” ~James Russell Lowell
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