Expect

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

EXPECT

Acts 12:12-17

12 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. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!" 15 "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel." 16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 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 brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.

NIV

Why didn't the people believe that Peter was at the door? Didn't they pray? Weren't they praying earnestly for Peter? Maybe they were praying that he would have peace during his ordeal, that he would be calm in the midst of his execution. Maybe they were not actually praying for his rescue at all and so they could not believe he was actually at the door. We simply do not know what they were praying for exactly, but the point is that they prayed but did not believe the answer God gave them and so quickly at that. They were actually astonished that Peter was at the door, which in essence was the answer to their prayer. When we pray, do we actually believe God is going to answer, or do we just pray to make ourselves feel good? Does praying make us feel more like Christians or believers then actually believing God is going answer? Do we pray because that is what we think is expected of us as Christians? Do we use prayer as an excuse not to do something ourselves? Perhaps those people did have some stalwart men among them, fisherman, brutes, strong and able to fight their way into the jail, revolting against the guards, and breaking Peter out, but instead they just prayed. It would seem that if they were praying for God to intervene, then they would expect Peter at the door, but they did not. We would be wise to learn that when we pray we should expect the answer. Doubt has no room in the mind and heart of a person who prays to God for an intervention. Life is life and it plays out each and every day, many times without any intervention from God, as we simply do our own thing. The problem that could arise is that we get so used to living our own way that we do not expect an intervention from God, even when we pray for one. We might hope he answers our prayer, but hope is not belief. Hope includes a shred of doubt where belief is pure and without doubt. If we believe then we should believe. If we believe than we should expect. Perhaps the reason many of us do not expect is because we have not seen real intervention by God, real answers to our prayers. Maybe the reason we have not seen those real answers, those miraculous interventions by God, is because we pray without believing and expecting a miraculous answer. Those people sure did not expect a miraculous intervention when they accused that servant girl of being out of her mind, because she said that Peter was at the door. That is the evidence their prayers were without true belief that God would do something. When we pray we should believe and expect a miraculous answer, a powerful intervention of God in our lives and in the lives of those we pray for. Although the other key to all this is that we need to be praying in accordance with the will of the Father. The Spirit will give us that kind of clarity. We know those believers were filled with the Spirit and we must assume they were praying according to the will of God, for the rescue of Peter, yet they still could not believe God answered them. When we pray, as directed by the Spirit, in accordance with the will of God, which is not hidden from us, God will answer our prayer. We need to believe and expect that answer.