Do not limit God to patterns

Call To Prayer

Title: Do not limit God to patterns

By: Owusu Clifford S.

Date: 16/07/2022

14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. 15 But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.” 16 Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Acts 12:14-16

Acts chapter 12 is a very popular chapter in scriptures for many obvious reasons. It is packed with so many lessons because of the events that transpired there (Peter’s capture, the church’s prayer and his rescue). Most of the time, people make inferences that the church was praying but they did not have faith. This argument arises because of the response of the church when Rhoda came and told them that Peter was at the door. When they finally opened and saw Peter, the Bible says they were amazed (see above for the verses).

These questions therefore arise: why did they doubt that Peter was at the gate though they were praying for his deliverance? Why were they amazed that he was there? Let’s delve a bit deeper to gather some possible answers for these questions by the help of the Holy Spirit. First, I do not believe that the church did not have faith, they would not have prayed in the first place. For without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and prayer pleases God, for He says we should ask and it shall be given (Matthew 7:7).

However, the situation was that they were praying with an expectation, which is not bad in itself. As Peter was in prison, the answer they were expecting was that Peter will be brought before a tribunal, trialed and found to be of no fault and discharged. Ideally, this is the natural way of thinking and expectation. Moreover they had a precedent to that effect (Acts 4:5-15, 5:27), so their expectation was not baseless. However, the ways of man are not the ways of God. They also had a precedent of miraculous escape of the apostles earlier (Acts 5:19). Though they had two previous occurrences but they decided to focus on the natural pattern of happenings.

Until we come to the realisation that God is God and He can do anything in anyway that He deems fit and necessary for the good of His children, we may miss so many blessings. Often, when we pray, we have a pattern of how God should answer it in mind and that is where we usually get it wrong. When the answer does not come through that pattern, we think our prayers have not been answered. However, ideally, we should be open minded and know that God can answer it in anyway.

The patterns we have developed often limit God and we end up at the losing end. God is not a one way God and He is not limited by anything or anyone. Let’s have an open minded approach to our walk with Him and we will obtain the abundance that comes from Him. Be blessed!

Prayer Point:

Let us thank God for the answers to our prayers. Let us pray for the sensitivity to identify and know when God is speaking with us even if the pattern is not what we are used to.

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