“Peter knocked at the outside door, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer it. She recognized Peter’s voice and was so happy that she ran back in without opening the door, and announced that Peter was standing outside. “You are crazy!” they told her. But she insisted that it was true. So they answered, “It is his angel.” Meanwhile Peter kept on knocking. At last they opened the door, and when they saw him, they were amazed.” Acts 12:13-16 GNT
“On a chosen day Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to the people. “It isn’t a man speaking, but a god!” they shouted. At once the angel of the Lord struck Herod down, because he did not give honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.” Acts 12:21-23 GNT
Today’s reading had two things that popped out at me. The first one made sense. The second one just kind of blew me away because I wasn’t expecting it. It was like, bam, and then.
But first was Peter, n Acts 12:13 -16. And it’s when Peter has an angel who guided and released Peter from jail. The angel walked him past the guards, opened his prison door miraculously, and the gate to the prison miraculously.
Then Peter’s walking through the town, gets to the house where all the other disciples and friends are praying, and he knocks on the door. A servant came to the door, she recognized Peter’s voice, but she was so happy that she didn’t open the door for him. She ran off to go tell everybody else and just left him standing outside knocking on the door in the middle of the night.
I always find that so humorous because…it’s so human. It’s something I would probably do. You know, when you get so excited, you’re so caught up in the moment that you don’t even think, I should probably let him in. The next thing that stood out to me is here they all are. All the people are sitting there praying for Peter to be released. He gets released and they don’t believe her when she says Peter is knocking on the door.
They’re like, no, no, it’s probably his angel. It’s not really Peter. But they were praying for it, so why wouldn’t it be Peter?
This started me thinking, how often do I pray for something, but then don’t believe it when that prayer is answered? Maybe because it didn’t happen the way I thought it was going to happen. Maybe that’s why it was hard for them to believe. Or maybe they just, I don’t know what they were thinking. But I know for me, sometimes if God answers prayers differently, which He often does answer differently from what I’m expecting to happen. I don’t always see the answer right away.
I have the perfect example of that. I went to a church service back in 2024 and it was for healing. It was one of the ones where they were going to lay hands on you and pray for you to have healing. And I had ask for prayer for my kidneys because I had chronic kidney disease stage three, but I also kept having what they call intense kidney traumas where my kidney function would literally drop way way down and then they’d have to rush me to the hospital. So, I asked for prayer for my kidneys, then two days later I ended up in the hospital again. And this time my kidney numbers were the lowest that they had ever been. They were low the point where my family was talking transplant and those types of things.
I had a whole bunch of people praying that night. The next day when the nephrologist came in he said there was no way your numbers could have gone so low to what they are now. He asked me if I was doing drugs. Was I on cocaine? I was like wait what? I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. I said “No.” Then he asked if someone in my house was poisoning me? I was like has this guy lost his mind, I said nobody was poisoning me. He said the only time he’d seen numbers change so drastically was when one of those things had happened.
I was like, “Or prayer!”
I hate to admit it, but it took me over a year to finally realize that Hospital visit was actually an answer to the prayers I had asked for two days earlier. My mind had gone to I went for prayer and ended up in the hospital. Man that stinks! You know I went to get help and got worse. But
Since then, my kidneys have improved. I’ve changed my diet and exercise. God healed my kidneys and me from the inside out. So, all that to say we should be expectant in prayer, but also to ask Jesus to show us what He is in the midst of doing when we don’t see the answer we expected. Because He is always doing something in our lives.
Then the other Scripture verse that kind of hit me in the face is we go from, from this wonderful Scripture where Peter’s been set free and everyone that was praying finds out that he was set free. And then Peter goes off somewhere else. And then all of a sudden it’s like, bam, Herod.
Suddenly we’re talking about Herod. Herod went somewhere else. There was civil unrest where Herod was and a group of locals came to talk to him to try to calm things down. Herod decided to address them. He got all “fancified” to talk to them. It says, on a chosen day, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne and made a speech to the people.
“It isn’t a man speaking, but a god,” they shouted.
At once, the angel of the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.
I was like, wow, okay. I didn’t feel like there was a segue or anything. It was just like, bam. And I’m not sure why it was written that way. But I feel like there is a reason. And so I’m going to continue to pray into it. But I’m not really sure why it was written that way.
I do know why he was struck down because he let the people say he was God and did not correct them. I mean, I did get that part. That part was pretty clear to me. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of the people praying and only God being able to answer and letting Peter out. And then this, you know, Herod, who was receiving that he was god, even though he wasn’t, I don’t know. But it was a very interesting story. Because, I mean, the whole first part of the Acts 12, 1 through 19, was about Peter, being released from prison.
Until next time with Jesus’ help let’s be less messy and choose what’s better.
This one was transcribed by my Evernote app from a recording. I obviously blabber on and on when I do voice recordings, sigh…