Acts 12:1-25 | Sometimes It Looks Like God Is FailingSample

Acts 12 tells us that when Peter was imprisoned, the whole church earnestly prayed for him. Certainly, these prayers were that God would strengthen Peter no matter his fate, but given how an angel frees him, it’s safe to assume they were also that God would deliver him.

Don’t just resign yourself to the times when it seems like God is failing. Pray.

In commenting on how the church prayed for Peter’s deliverance in light of James being killed, NT Wright once again shares some thoughts that are worth repeating in full, this time on prayer:

“Now of course: prayer remains a mystery. We don’t understand why sometimes new things happen through prayer while often they seem not to. We don’t understand why the church prayed for James and Herod still killed him, and the church prayed for Peter and he got out of jail free. But Jesus himself and the early Christians urge us to persevere in prayer, and you only tell someone to persevere if you know it will sometimes be hard. The battle is on. We won’t see the whole picture; we have to hold our bit of the line.

Sometimes, indeed, prayer seems dark and almost without reward… and one might be tempted to give up were it not for the occasional twitch of the curtain…. That’s a bit bleak, but that is often how it seems. Many great women and men of prayer have reported such times, and have often concluded that God was withdrawing in order to woo them closer in…. No doubt Peter, and indeed Cornelius, had said their prayers over and over… and then suddenly, the breakthrough. God’s fresh revelations appear out of the blue, but regularly that new light bursts in upon people who have long been praying in the dark…. You never know what new purposes and possibilities are waiting in the wings. But if you step out of the great river of prayer you may just never see them” (The Challenge of Acts, p. 62).

Prayer might be a mystery, but God encourages us to persevere. It will be hard. The battle is on. We won’t see the whole picture. But prayer is about moving forward in faith until all things are accomplished by Christ. Trust God, not success. Trust God, not what you see.

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