An Answered Prayer
Now that we have seen some of the types of prayers, I want to remind our readers of the power of prayer. I have said throughout this series that prayer is our greatest weapon, it is how we communicate with God. We have seen different types of prayers that show this relationship with our Lord and Savior and hopefully this series has encouraged you in your prayer life. With a better understanding of prayer, we need to be reminded of how prayer is our greatest weapon. One of the best examples for this can be found in Acts 12.
In this chapter, Peter has been imprisoned by King Herod for preaching the gospel. The King planned to have Peter executed after the feast of Unleavened Bread. Peter was thrown into prison and into the hands of four squads, so roughly forty men. The night before he was to be executed, Peter was asleep and chained between two of the guards. He had no expectation of being released so when an angel appeared to him, Peter believed that it was a dream.
“6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.””
Acts 12:6-11
You may be wondering what this story has to do with the power of prayer, and the answer to that question can be found one verse up.
“ 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”
Acts 12:5
While Peter was expecting to die, the church was meeting together and offering up prayers to God for his rescue. When we began this series we discussed the attitudes that can be seen in different prayers. This included an attitude of being earnest which we defined as approaching God with excitement, not half-heartedly. An earnest prayer is a prayer that of sincere conviction, and there is no doubt that this is exactly what the church was doing on Peter’s behalf. This example shows us the power that prayer has. We don’t always know the situation that someone faces or how we should pray when we are faced with a difficult situation; but when we pray and we ask others to pray for us we are raining down that artillery fire and it may even end with a release from our own prison.
The fact is, we don’t always know the outcome of our prayers. The church praying for Peter certainly didn’t. Not until he appeared at their doorstep and even then they believed that it could not have been him. “12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ” Acts 12:12-16 The church had no clue that their prayer had been answered until Peter appeared.
This is the same for us when we pray, we may not get an answer right away, or we may not even know that our prayer has been answered. What we need to keep in mind, is that we need to pray no matter what. Finally, I want to leave you with this, God loves you and if you are ever wondering if He cares for you turn to His Word. If you are ever wondering if He is listening, just seek the Lord’s promises found in scripture. Jesus Christ is a living God, this means He can hear and act upon prayer.
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex