Prayer Posture - Dr. Gerry Lewis

Last week, I was writing while watching the snow fall in my front yard. Today the forecasted high is 94.

Crazy!

When I got up this morning I was planning to write today’s pondering about my planned activities for the day.

At 2:00 I’ll be attending the funeral service for my friend Linda Gafford. A year ago I didn’t even know her, but she has become a precious encourager to me since I became the interim pastor at Temple Baptist Church, Amarillo almost 10 months ago.

At 7:00 I’ll be joining with my daughter, Tova Dad, and about 100 more singers and a baroque orchestra for the Amarillo Master Chorale 45th anniversary concert performance of Handel’s Messiah.

As I read today’s hymn text, I couldn’t help thinking that Linda is having an experience with her Messiah and Lord that the rest of us can only imagine.

That’s what I planned to write about today.

Until I read Acts 12.

This post is going to be a little longer than usual because I need to give you some context.

“It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,’ the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.’ 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. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’

‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 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 other brothers and sisters about this,’ he said, and then he left for another place.

In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.”

(Acts 12:1-19)

How is it that they were shocked? Did they not really believe that their prayers mattered? Did they not expect God to answer their prayers?

I’ve had these thoughts for years.

Until today.

Today I was struck with a thought that maybe I had interpreted their prayers in a way that is not indicated in the text. Maybe I was assuming that they were praying for his release because that’s the way I would’ve been praying.

But if I consider the ways the church prayed in the book of Acts, it’s possible that they were not shocked THAT God answered their prayers, but HOW God answered.

It’s more likely that they were praying that God would strengthen Peter and give him peace and boldness to proclaim the good news of Jesus through his trial and execution.

They were in a time of persecution. James had already been martyred. Stephen had been martyred. Many of them had been imprisoned. This was their reality.

So it seems to me – as of today – that it is much less likely that they were praying for escape and much more likely that they were praying for endurance, and for God to be glorified.

Maybe that should inspire and inform the way I pray for people.

Maybe that should inspire and inform the way that I pray for myself.

One of my favorite Tim Keller quotes (that I often mention): “God answers our prayers in the way we would have prayed them if we knew everything He knows.”

Somewhere along the way, we have decided that prayer is more about changing circumstances than it is about positioning ourselves to agree with and walk in step with God in our circumstances.

Handel’s Messiah (all 3 hours of it) is a musical journey through the grand story of redemption—from the Old Testament prophecies to the final Amen at the renewal of all things.