“6 On the night before Herod was to bring him out for execution, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” Then the chains fell off his wrists. 8 “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did so. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what took place through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and immediately the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying. 13 He knocked at the door in the gateway, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. 14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.

15 “You’re crazy!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, “It’s his angel!” 16 Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.

17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Report these things to James and the brothers,” he said. Then he departed and went to a different place.

18 At daylight, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. 19 After Herod had searched and did not find him, he interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.”

Acts 12:6-19

—

James had been executed, Peter was in jail awaiting his own execution and things seemed pretty hopeless. We all have seasons in life that feel like this. There doesn’t seem to be any good news, and if some does come, we write it off quickly and dismiss it as something else. Nobody likes to be in places or times like this, but when they come, time seems to slow down and things never progress at the speed we want them to…

For the Christian, this is a very contrary attitude to have and to hang on to. We see these things happening, know what the truth is, and that God has something better planned for us, but somehow we get wrapped up in the woes at hand and forget the promises that have been laid out before us. We center our hearts on this world as our home, rather than on the glorious promise of God through eternity, and so our hearts get bogged down in the worry and the details of the trial taht we are experiencing. 

Faith doesn’t mean that we deny the trial is even happening. It doesn’t mean that we dupe ourselves into believing that it’s not really going on. Instead, faith lets us see clearly beyond the current struggle that we are dealing with and into the reality that God is our great rescuer. Now, Peter could have been rescued by God in any number of ways, or God could have chosen to let Peter’s life be an example to others in what it means to surrender your body to the Lord (which he would eventually do, and Jesus had prophesied would happen.) And either way, God would be the One gettin Him through the situation and providing the exit plan, even if it wasn’t the one that their human desires were longing for.

Faith also means being prepared for God to move however He sees fit, and having confidence in that plan, even when we do not understand it as well as we would like, or even at all. The church was praying for him, but they weren’t even ready for what God was going to do. It makes for a fun read for us, to see them shocked and surprised by the goodness of God, but it just goes to show that God’s plans are not our plans. It sometimes takes us a moment to see what is going on and just what He is up to. That moment can be a literal moment, as we see here, or it may take us much longer to clue in to what God is doing. 

Either way, we are called to be a people of hope and to trust in God no matter the circumstances. In this way, we provide a viewpoint on life that others  do not have as we GoLove them in Jesus Name. The life of faith, unrelenting faith, isn’t a life lived in a pipe-dream but a life of eager expectation for whatever it is that God is going to do. Yes, it is a life of hope, and it wouldn’t be a reflection of the heart of God if it wasn’t. 

Have faith. Be hopeful. Trust in God.