Check out all the previous Acts readings here.
Acts Reading Plan | Week 10 | Day 1
Prayer
1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” As you come to spend time with Jesus, give him what is weighing you down today. You might physically move as if you are casting those things to him. Now breathe in and say “cast all your anxiety on him” and breathe out saying “because he cares for you.”
Bible Reading: Acts 12:9-19
Read these verses three times slowly.
We’re picking up on the story from last week, where Peter was in jail, waiting to be executed, and the angel had come to rescue him.
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. 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. 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.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
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. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 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 other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.
In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
Reflection & Questions
Today’s reading is a series of humorous situations. Firstly, Peter didn’t realize the angel was really rescuing him. It wasn’t until he got halfway down the street that maybe he pinched himself and realized that it was actually happening. Then he turns up at the door of the house where the believers are praying for him. Rhonda is so flabbergasted when she hears Peter at the door, that instead of letting him in (and getting him out of danger), she runs into the house to tell everyone that Peter is there! On hearing Rhonda’s excitement, the rest of the people in the house (who are PRAYING for Peter’s rescue) tell her “you’re out of your mind” to think Peter is rescued! You can’t make this stuff up!
As humorous as it is, there’s an underlying lesson to this story. How often can we be praying for something and not really think God is going to answer? How often do we hedge our bets and not really pray for what we need or want, because we don’t really believe God will come through? We might even be praying for something and we haven’t noticed that God has already answered our prayer! The believers couldn’t believe God had answered their prayers, but He had. And it was upon this answer that Peter took time to testify to “how the Lord had brought Him out of prison.” God will sometimes blow us away with the very specific and miraculous ways that He answers our prayers – and we might well have to pinch ourselves. The joy we get then is to testify to how amazing our God is, that He cares for us and answers our prayers.
- Which character(s) do you relate to in this story? Why?
- What is a prayer that you would find unbelievable if God answered? Why is it unbelievable?
Prayer
Talk to God in response to the reading today.
Worship Song
You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:
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Questions?
Ed Applegate
