“The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.” Thomas Watson
Acts 12:5-16
After Herod had thrown Peter in prison….
“Constant prayers were offered to God for him by the church.” Acts 12:5
Peter thought it was a dream/vision at first (v.9) Those that were praying thought Rhoda was crazy (v.15)
This Thomas Watson quote has been on my mind since first reading it several weeks ago. Coupled with a study of “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life” by Charles Spurgeon, it caused me to think about my own prayer life. Have I modified my prayers to ask for what I think God can do?
Although the church had been praying for Peter, they couldn’t realistically understand how God would answer those prayers. But they prayed believing that God couldanswer their prayers. They believed that God could transcend what is realistic! Have we traded the biblical version of possibilities with our rigid version of what is realistic? Have we forgotten what His word promises?….”for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,‘Move from here to there’, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified.”
John 14:13 So we should approach His throne with enlarged expectations!
Read what C.H. Spurgeon says about how we should approach the Throne of Grace…. “We do not come, as it were, in prayer only to where God dispenses His favors to the poor or to the backdoor of the house of mercy to receive the scraps, though that were more than we deserve. To eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table is more than we could claim.
But when we pray, we are standing in the palace, on the glittering floor of the great King’s own reception room. In prayer we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith?
He is a King who distributes pieces of broad gold, making a sumptuous ‘feast of fat things….of wines on the lees well refined’ (Isa 25:6) Take heed of imagining that God’s thoughts are your thoughts and His ways your ways (Isa 55:8) Do not bring before God stinted petitions and narrow desires, but remember, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above your ways and His thoughts above your thoughts.
Ask, therefore, after a Godlike fashion, for great things, for you are before a great throne. Oh, that we always felt this when we came before the throne of grace, for then He would do for us ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think’"(Eph 3:20).
Can you imagine how our prayer lives would be different if we came while reminding ourselves of all the promises in His word? Continue to pray for those friends and loved ones in “impossible” situations. We can’t begin to imagine how God will resolve it, but He will.
He will make a way when there is no way! (Jeremiah 33:3)
Continue to pray for those who are lost and hurting, that they would come to the saving grace that is in Christ Jesus. Especially now, that the world would turn their eyes to Him, seek after Him. (1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9)
If we will pray in faith, it is never wasted. He will hear us, and He will answer us in His time and in His way. Cindy Rusate