“But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed.” — Acts 12:16
This is a story I’m sure most or all of us are familiar with. The chapter starts off with the Apostle Peter sitting in a Roman prison cell. He was in a situation that was humanly impossible to escape from. (Acts 12:6).
Quickly notice verse 5. “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God.”
God’s people were praying for him, for God’s escape from the prison and from Herod, ultimately praying for God to save his life. Peter was in line to be embarrassed publicly and then probably killed publicly. The people of the church were passionately praying for Peter’s life to be spared and for his ministry to be allowed to go on further.
Beginning in verse 7 and thru to verse 10, we see the miraculous way that God saved Peter’s life and broke him out of prison. In verses 11 and 12, Peter realizes what happened and follows God’s guidance to one particular house that just so happened to be where everyone is praying for him.
“(13)When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. (14) When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. (15) They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.”
The people of the church not only chose not to believe Rhoda when she told them their prayers had been answered, but they almost said God couldn’t answer their prayer. “It is his angel.” “Peter’s probably already dead.”
They prayed, but many or most of them didn’t really believe God was going to answer their prayers the way they wanted them to. Not to say He couldn’t, but maybe He wasn’t going to.
Back in December of ’22, I asked my church for prayer for my car. I live in New England, snow was coming soon, and my tires were going bald. I believed God could keep me safe driving thru the snow, but I wanted that assurance of good tires on my car. I was also just above broke. I had enough money to get by, but nothing saved up for anything extra. I asked my church people to pray for new tires on my car, however, after a few weeks of not seeing any substantial amount of money saved up in my bank account, I gave up praying. I told myself that I’m just going to push thru the winter and trust God to keep my car on the road on those scary and sketchy and bad weather days.
Fast forward to late January, I took my car into a shop to get it inspected and fixed up, I had a few bucks but not enough to buy four new tires without going under. A few details about the week. My mom had a piece of mail that came to my parent’s house, from the state. I assumed it was the relief check of $450, so I planned to use that for the car. My mechanic said my car would pass except for the tires. It needed, at least, two new front tires. I drove to the tire shop, got a better deal for four tires and dropped $790 on four tires for my little Subaru.
Two days later, I get to my parent’s house for a few things and I grab my mail. I opened the mail from the state to find that it was a check for almost $900. Apparently, I had some unclaimed assets with the state that I didn’t know about, so they sent me my money. I was in shock. God paid for my tires in a way I never thought He would. I knew he could, but I didn’t think He would.
I told my church family with excitement that God answered a prayer that I had stopped praying. I gave up praying for it. And then, Fred, and older gentleman in my church, a man I live and trust dearly, asked me a question I want to ask you today.
Why are we always so surprised when God answers our prayers?
Why so surprised? Why are we so shocked when God does what He knows to be best for us? Do we not expect God to take care of His people? Do we not expect the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of those He’s watching over? Why are we always so surprised when God answers our prayers?
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