Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
Acts 12:5
How would you have felt if you had been Peter? King Herod began a persecution of the church in Jerusalem, highlighting it with the murder of the apostle James, the brother of John. When he saw that this pleased the Jewish leaders, he seized Peter also and put him in jail. If you had been Peter, wouldn’t you have thought that Herod planned to murder you as well? How alone would you have felt?
The church prayed diligently that night for Peter who was chained to two Roman soldiers, and there were guards at the doors of the jail too. Talk about lonely! Bound in chains through the night with the prospect of meeting a sword in the morning. But suddenly the church’s prayers were answered as an angel appeared to Peter and set him free. When Peter realized that God had appeared, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord…has delivered me” (Acts 12:11). You may not find yourself chained and condemned to die for Jesus. (Or you might.) But whatever your predicament, if you will wait, God will come to you with peace, protection, or a promise.
It is not a question of whether God will appear when you are in trouble, but how.
I read this devotion and wonder how easy it is right now to live neglecting God’s Word, giving no thought to the things of God, being lukewarm, and thinking God is there when I am in trouble but I give Him little to no thought when things are going well.
When Paul tells us though we ought to be teachers we are babies in need of being taught. Living in the busyness of life without the preeminence of God being our purpose, will not grow us to a faith that understands peace, rest, joy, hope, or promises of God. This neglectful living and lukewarm approach will only weaken our trust, faith, and reliance.
God is not mocked, what we sow we will reap. If our lives are sowing seeds of what this world has to offer, we will reap fruits from them. This fruit is pleasing to the eyes and seems to give purpose and satisfaction, but in reality, it is not.
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. There is no maturing and growth in the lives of those being filled with what the world deems important.
There is a bright light to the soul found in the Word of God. It illuminates the differences between truth and false, good and bad, wisdom and foolishness, light and dark, faith and unbelief, love and hate, peace and anger, hope and dread, heavenly and worldly, godly and fleshly, etc…. The Word of God cannot be neglected without it affecting the heart, mind, and soul. Something is going to fill the void.
I fear Satan’s false light is becoming brighter and brighter in the hearts and minds of those who should know better due to neglect of God’s Word. It is our intentional choice to want to grow in our understanding and knowledge of God. It is also our intentional choice to neglect God’s Word. Just because this is the way of many “Christians” does not make it right. This world will offer many reasons to neglect God’s Word, none of which will benefit your soul or bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ in our of our thoughts, words, and actions.
