Praying in Faith

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 NLT

One of my recent Bible readings was Acts 12. In this chapter, Herod has put Peter in prison. Now Herod was arresting those who belonged to the church and had put James, the brother of John to death already, so it wasn’t looking good for Peter. The church was “earnestly praying” to God on Peter’s behalf.

Scripture tells us the night before Peter was to be brought to trial, he was bound with chains, sleeping between two guards, when an angel of the Lord appeared, woke him up, made the chains fall from his wrist and led him from the prison to freedom right under three sets of guards noses. When Peter realized he wasn’t dreaming, he went to the house of Mary (John Mark’s mom) where everyone was gathered together praying for him.

When he arrived and knocked, Rhoda the house servant heard his voice, and got so excited she didn’t even open the door for him but ran to tell the others he was there. And do you know what they said to her? “You’re out of your mind!”

They thought it must be Peter’s angel. So Peter just kept knocking. The Bible tells us when they finally opened the door and saw it was really him they were astonished.

It reminds me of the story of the small farming town suffering from a severe drought. The pastor called the congregation together to pray for rain but only one little girl showed up with an umbrella.

I’m afraid I’m guilty of this same lack of faith sometimes. I pray believing God can do what I’m asking, but not that He will. I think part of the problem is not being entirely sure what I’m praying is His will. Often times I’m too busy asking him to accompany me where I’m going and help me out that I’m not following Him and helping others out.

Lord, help me to seek your will and pray in faith, believing. Help my unbelief.