Herod gets eaten up by worms. Nice...gross, but nice.
Let me tell you what I love in this section. When Peter is arrested, the whole church starts to pray for him. (After all, Christians who get arrested are suddenly being executed) What happens? Their prayers get answered! An angel wakes him up, releases his chains, tells him to get dressed, walks him past the guards, and right out the gate! He goes to a house, where people are praying for him and when a girl tells them all that Peter is at the door, they do not believe her! They are more willing to believe an angel is at the door than Peter! It blows my mind, but also reminds me of that great verse that says our God is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20) The church prayed for Peter, bt they did not imagine he could simply walk out of jail, and probably did not ask for such a thing...but that is exactly what happened!
This story always makes me wonder what would happen if we (the church) prayed for really big stuff. It makes me realize that God is not sitting arround waiting to respond to the prayers of the church. He is on the edge of his seat, contemplating doing something bigger than we could even think of asking for. I need to stop making excuses, and start getting together with the church to pray!
The verse that stood out for me was also verse 5, "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him". The 2 things that struck me were..first, it was the whole church praying ...not just a few people. and second was the intensity of their prayer. Looking at the different translations, their prayer was described as earnest, constant, strenuous, ferverent, strong and without ceasing. I would love to see what would happen if our whole church were to pray like that for something. I think God would just love to totally amaze us with his response..if we would just give him a chance!
ReplyDelete