The Problem with Prayer

TODAY'S READING: Ex. 39, 40; Ps. 15; Acts 12

SCRIPTURE: Acts 1-17
¹ It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

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: There are a lot of great lessons in this story but it is also a story that brings up many questions in my mind. Why was James, one of the most important of the twelve disciples, put to death while Peter experienced divine intervention to prevent his death? It would almost seem like God liked Peter better. I don't believe that, but it is hard to explain why God acted to save one and did nothing to save the other. Some may think it is because the church didn't pray for James, but the text does not say that. It only says that they did pray for Peter, not that they did not pray for James. In fact, I think they may have had doubt that God wouldn't answer their prayers for Peter's deliverance because they had prayed for James to be saved from death but that prayer was not answered. There's nothing like unanswered prayer to create doubt about the effectiveness of one's prayers to do much of anything. It's very discouraging. The believers were clearly amazed that Peter had been set free in answer to their prayers. God tells us to pray about everything and to not give up. These Christians were obedient to that but they obviously had little faith that it would "work". So what can I learn from this?

APPLICATION: I have to trust God even when I don't understand why he allows certain things and not others. I need to have faith that he knows the reasons for things even when it makes no sense to me. And I must keep praying, regardless of how many answers to prayer I get. I have heard many pastors say that sometimes God's answer to our prayers is "no". That is true. But it is not a satisfactory answer. There have been many times I have had a "yes" from the Lord and many times I have had a "no". The problem is not getting a "no", the problem is that there have been plenty of times when I got no response whatsoever; when I did not sense a "no", I sensed nothing at all. I may not like a "no" answer, but it doesn't discourage me. The discouraging thing is to pray and hear nothing from God. I cannot answer why some very godly people have had to endure much suffering or death in their lives while others seem to be blessed at every turn. But it is in times like these that I need to have faith in God and trust that he sees and knows more than I do and will work all thing together for good. I do know that when I trust God and cling to him even when I don't understand why things are happening as they are I have always been able to look back after some time and see that God used even bad and horribly hurtful situations to grow something in me that was good. Going through painful trials without trusting God to do something good through it simply is succumbing to the destructive nature of suffering. Only in God's hands does suffering become a tool for positive transformative change.

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for recording such events in the early church for us. It is encouraging to me to read that the early believers prayed and sometimes had results and sometimes did not. It is wonderful to have a record of how you worked miracles through people who did not always pray with the greatest of faith. It lets me know that you can work through me, with all my imperfections, just as you did with them. I will stay faithful to you and trust you to work, even when I don't understand why things are happening as they are. You are my only hope and my trust is in you. Help to hear your voice better and better all the time. In Jesus' Name, Amen.