SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2018 10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 God’s Power Cannot be
Contested
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 12:5-19
Message of the verses: “5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting." 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, "It is his angel." 16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, "Report these things to James and the brethren." Then he left and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. 19 When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.”
I think that it is unfortunate that when people are in
trouble that the last thing that they think of is to pray about the situation
they find themselves in. This was not
the case with the church in Jerusalem when Peter was about to be executed as
they all were praying, knowing that it was only God who would allow Peter to be
released. John MacArthur writes “The
adverb ekenos (fervently) is related
to ektenes, a medical term describing
the stretching of a muscle to its limits.
Ektenos is used in Luke 22:44
to describe our Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane when ‘being in agony He was praying
very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the
ground.’ The church poured the maximum
effort they were capable of into their prayers for Peter. They knew the truth James was later to
express, that ‘the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much’
(James 5:16). The eketnes word group describes three essential elements of the
Christian life: love (1 Peter 4:8), service (Acts 26:7), and, in the present
passage, prayer.” I can’t help but think about another Greek
Word that Paul and John used when it came to prayer: “sunagonizomai” is a word used in both Romans 15:30 and also in
John 18:36. The word has agony in the
middle of it and so both Paul and John speak of praying at times one will
agonize in it. “30 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus
Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your
prayers to God for me.” “36 Jesus
answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this
world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as
it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.’” Conclusion:
Prayer is hard work.
As we look at verse six we see that Herods thinks that he
has the situation well in hand, however God had other plans. We mentioned in our last SD that Peter was
asleep in the prison when the next day they were to execute him, and stated
that Jesus had told Peter how he was going to die. Peter was sleeping so soundly that the angel
had to wake him up. I have to say at
this point that there are times when I have stressful things to do the next day
that I have trouble sleeping, and perhaps I need to learn a lesson from
Peter. Psalm 4:8 states “8 In peace I
will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in
safety.” Perhaps Peter was thinking of
this Psalm that night before he went to sleep.
We also mentioned that Herod was trying to make the
Jewish leadership happy and that is why he had put James to death, but my guess
is that he forgot to talk to the Lord about his plans when it came to
Peter. One of the things that has been
going on since man sinned is politics, and this is what was going on here as
Herod wanted to make the Jews happy so he decided to kill a couple of the
leaders of the church. God is in
control, and surely God knew how Peter was going to die as Jesus told him that
in the 21st chapter of John, so the politics of that day as they are
in our day too are controlled by the Lord.
This section is going to take a few days to complete and
so we will stop here and Lord willing will pick it up in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
worship and serve the One True God who is in control of all things at all
times.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me wisdom as I
continue to work on my Sunday school lesson for this upcoming Sunday morning.
Memory Verse: Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do Your will, for
You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “There was an earthquake and
the prison doors opened” (Acts 16:25-26).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who announced in Luke 1:35
that Jesus would be called the Son of God?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/1/2018 11:48 AM
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