Praying Like We Believe It Could Make A Difference

"About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.) Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.

So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.

Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”

When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”

“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.” Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed." - Acts 12:1-16

What if the church collectively prayed? What if the Church - Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, etc, put aside our differences and came together under what unites and bonds us and prayed together? Could we see real change in the world?

I love this story in Acts 12 because of the simplicity. James had been killed and Peter is in jail awaiting the same fate. The church is being persecuted and those who are left could very easily be next. And they gather and pray. Imagine this happening right now. #PrayForPeter Everyone changing their avatars to Peter's mug shot. Social media activism. But probably not a lot of all church prayer meetings. 

But the church in Acts gathers to pray for Peter. Not just for an hour or two. The church was praying all through the night. I imagine they would have prayed into the next day, through Peter's trial and execution. But God hears their prayer and Peter has more work to do. The church is still praying when Peter shows up and knocks on the door. It's quite funny because they don't even believe it could actually be Peter at first. 

What would happen if 75% of the American church was so deeply moved and affected by the stories of the brothers and sisters being killed by IS and Al-Shabaab, that we stopped arguing silly laws about who should bake a cake for who and united as Christians, under the blood of Jesus that set all of us free, to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world suffering real persecution and who could lose their life at any moment? What if we believed the words of Isaiah 24, that God will turn spears into pruning hooks and swords into plows and prayed for revival in the lives of those hunting down and killing our brothers and sisters? (Instead of hoping we bomb the country and send them straight to hell) Imagine what would happen if churches across America didn't hold Saturday, Sunday, or Wednesday night services, but instead devoted themselves to praying for revival and changed hearts, and peace where there has been war and terror for so long.

Can you imagine turning on NPR (or CNN or Fox, whatever your poison is) and hearing reports that IS has destroyed all their weapons and were asking for forgiveness? We wouldn't believe it. It would be, wait for it, a miracle! 

Is it wishful thinking? Sure. Not because I don't believe God could turn the hearts of the "enemy" to him, but because some days it seems like the bigger miracle would be a unified American church. But just imagine with me, a world where our differences didn't divide us, but we stood together based on what we had in common, our status as the sons and daughters of God. What if that mattered more than what side of an issue we stood on? We would be instruments of change and bearers of peace!