But Prayer Was Made

“Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” (Ac 12:5 AV)

But prayer was made!  It has become cliché, but it is no less true. Prayer changes things.  Even if Peter was not miraculously freed from an unjust prison, prayer was still the most important thing to do.  Prayer has become ineffective because it is treated as a religious exercise rather than that which it truly is.  Prayer is a conversation with God.  Although prayer is effective in a prayer closet, it is just as effective outside of one, too.  Prayer is having a conversation with our Creator regarding things that concern us or others.  It is one of the means by which we grow more intimate with our Creator.  Relationships require communication.  The more communication, the more intimate the relationship.  Those four words speak volumes!  Just because it seems as though a certain event is set in stone and nothing can be done, prayer is the sledgehammer that breaks open the prison bars.  The young church’s instinct was to go to prayer.  They didn’t stand around and wonder what would happen.  They didn’t console one another with tears flowing down the cheeks.  They went to prayer.  The single word ‘but’ tells us that if prayer is involved, a situation is not certain.  Prayer is more powerful than the circumstances of life.  That is the lesson here.

Those four words are not only words of hope.  They are words of action.  There is little to nothing they could have done to help their leader.  He was a pawn in the game of Herod the king.  Seeing that the death of James, brother of John, brought much joy to his subjects, he determined to continue the slaughter by taking Peter, next.  The way he figured it, if he could rule Israel with peace and happiness from his subjects, that would only help him politically.  There was nothing personal here.  Peter was the next one in line to help Herod ascend the ladder of leadership.  There was no trial planned.  There was no due process offered.  As far as Herod was concerned, the only thing that stood in the way of Peter’s death was the planning a public execution would take.  In a matter of hours to days, Peter would have been the next martyr for Jesus Christ.  The prison in which he was held was impenetrable.  The guards stood fast.  The disciples ran a great risk by trying to intervene.  If they did try, they would end up in prison along with Peter.  There was nothing they could physically do.  But prayer was offered, and God intervened.

By going to prayer, the church was not giving up.  They were going up.  They were not hopelessly addressing the throne of God because they felt they would see a funeral within the next few days.  Rather, they went to prayer because they were hopeful.  The word ‘but’ means that prayer was offered because God was greater than the prison house.  God was greater than Herod.  To God, Peter’s situation was nothing.  That is why they went to prayer.  They went to prayer not because they lacked faith.  They went to prayer because they had faith.  Even Rhoda and the rest of the prayer group believed it was Peter’s ghost and not Peter himself standing at the gate only meant that they prayed in faith.  Whether Peter was delivered by life or by death, of that they had no doubt.  They went to prayer because they believed God to be greater than all things.  Therefore, rather than sit and wait for the outcome, they went to prayer until God answered!