funny bit in Acts

I am reading through the book of Acts at the moment, and I came across a passage that stood out to me because it had previously been shared with me by one of my Christian uni friends. It is in Acts 12 from verse 5 through to 16.

Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the guards before the door kept the prison.

And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he struck Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird yourself, and bind on your sandals. And so he did. And he said unto him, Cast your garment about you, and follow me. And he went out, and followed him; and knew not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.

When they were past the first and the second guard, they came unto the iron gate that leads unto the city; which opened to them of its own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord has sent his angel, and has delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a maid came to answer, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.

And they said unto her, You are mad. But she continued to affirm that it was so. Then they said, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.

That's such a funny part of Scripture hey? Peter has been locked up in prison, and all the people in the church come together and hold an all-night-prayer-meeting to ask God to help him get out of jail. Peter walks straight out of the jail with his new Angel friends and goes to the prayer meeting. When he gets there, little Rhoda comes up to the door, hears Peter, and then excitedly tells everyone that their prayers have been answered and Peter is standing outside! Everyone doesn't believe her and instead tell her "Rhoda, it can't be Peter, he's in jail There's NO WAY it can be him, you're probably just seeing things - now quit acting crazy and telling us he's out there and pray with us!"

Makes me laugh when I think about what poor little Rhoda must have been thinking. She must have been confused - grownups praying for Peter to get out of jail, Peter rocks up at the door, grownups don't believe her and keep praying instead. Heheh it's funny, but I can't help but think we are like the people in the prayer meeting sometimes too. We pray for this and that, and all the while God has answered our prayers already, but we still keep praying because we don't have the faith that God will answer our prayer!

What a great little passage. My friend at uni actually pointed out this passage, because it was one of the verses that helped her come to know Jesus as her personal Saviour. While reading the Bible and trying to find reasons not to believe, she came across this passage in Acts and after reading it, she thought - why would the Bible include such detail as a young girl trying to tell everyone something and no one believing her? She concluded that the Bible must be the Word of God because if man had written it, they would have skipped that part and just written that the prayers of the church had been answered.

I thought that was a pretty good point - and I guess that's why I have always remembered that part of Acts. But the lesson of that passage is a pretty good one too - if we are going to pray for something, we have to have the faith that God will answer. As Pastor James / Ed always used to say 'if you are going to pray for rain, you better bring an umbrella'- Amen!